ATTORNEY-GENERAL

Crime: Prosecutions

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Attorney-General 
	(1)  how many cases of criminal damage have been referred to the Crown Prosecution Service from the police for a charging decision in each of the last five years;
	(2)  how many cases of offences against the person have been referred to the Crown Prosecution Service from the police for a charging decision in each of the last five years.

Oliver Heald: The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) maintains no central record of the offences or category of offences on cases referred to the CPS for a charging decision. This information could only be obtained by examining all of the files sent to the CPS for charging advice, which would incur a disproportionate cost.

COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Advertising

Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much his Department has spent on advertising since May 2010; and for what types of costs such expenditure was made.

Brandon Lewis: My Department has cut spending on marketing and advertising from £9.9 million in 2009-10, to £898,000 in 2010-11 and £980,000 in 2011-12.
	Our advertising spending now mainly relates to (a) the ‘Fire Kills' safety campaign and (b) informing council tenants of the new increased discount available under Right to Buy.
	To assist the hon. Member’s scrutiny of Whitehall savings, I would note that the previous Administration spent £22,000 of taxpayers' money on home information packs branding; £21,090 on Homebuy scheme branding; £15,000 on branding the Sustainable Communities summit (subsequently cancelled); £10,000 on branding the National Housing and Planning Advice Unit quango; £25,000 on Community Builders branding; £7,260 on Code for Sustainable Homes branding; £33,400 on Cleaner Safer Greener Communities branding; £3,520 on re-branding Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Fire Services as the Chief Fire and Rescue Adviser; £3,830 on a logo for the Department for Communities and Local Government followed by spending £24,765 on renaming it Communities and Local Government; and £1,371 on re-branding the ‘Office of the Deputy Prime Minister' to the ‘Deputy Prime Minister's Office'.

Conditions of Employment

Julie Elliott: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many people are employed on zero-hour contracts in his Department.

Brandon Lewis: The Department currently has one senior civil servant in a professional role on a zero-hour contract. The individual in question is Sir Ken Knight, Chief Fire and Rescue Adviser. He moved onto a zero-hour contract on 1 November 2012. This is a short-term arrangement so the Department still has access to professional advice until a new appointment has been made and to enable Sir Ken Knight to complete the Efficiencies Review of the Fire and Rescues in England.
	Sir Ken's replacement, Peter Holland, started in the Department on 28 January 2013, so Ken is still working on the handover of role and on the Efficiencies Review due to be completed in April 2013.

Directors

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what declarations of interest must be made by his Department's non-executive directors; with what frequency any such declarations are required to be made; and if he will make that information publicly available.

Brandon Lewis: Non-executives must declare, to the Secretary of State or Permanent Secretary, any personal or business interest which may, or may be perceived (by a reasonable member of the public) to influence their judgement in performing their functions and obligations. These interests include (without limitation), personal direct and indirect pecuniary interests and any such interests of close family members and/or of people living in the same household as the non-executive or their close family members.
	For non-executive directors in my Department, it is outlined in their contracts that information on potential conflicts of interest will be held by both the Secretary of State's and Permanent Secretary's office and could be disclosed to the public under the Freedom of Information Act (2000) and reported in the context of the annual report and accounts. Non-executive directors consent to this disclosure on accepting the appointment and entering into the contractual agreement.

Families: Peterborough

Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how he will measure the performance of the Troubled Families initiative in Peterborough constituency; and if he will make a statement.

Brandon Lewis: The aims of the Troubled Families Programme are to get children back into school, reduce youth crime and antisocial behaviour, put adults on a path back to work and bring down the amount of money public services currently spend on them.
	Peterborough has committed to a local target of turning around the lives of 450 troubled families by 2015. The number of results they claim by that date, as part of the Payment by Results scheme which underpins the Troubled Families Programme, will certainly be one measure of their performance. My Department is about to commission an independent evaluation of the programme which will be looking at the progress and outcomes that areas such as Peterborough achieve with troubled families across a broader set of issues, and the savings made as a result.

Homelessness: Young People

Gavin Shuker: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many young people presented as homeless in each local authority area in each year since 2008.

Mark Prisk: holding answer 28 January 2013
	The Department does not collect the requested information. The most relevant information that it collects from local authorities on the quarterly Homelessness (PIE) return is the number of households that have been accepted as being owed the main homeless duty where:
	(i) The applicant is aged 16 to 24; or
	(ii) The household falls within one of two priority need categories relating to young people: those with an applicant aged 16 or 17-years-old; and those with an applicant formerly "in care", aged 18 to 20 years old.
	A table has been placed in the Library of the House, showing the numbers of homelessness acceptances with these characteristics in each local authority area in England during every year since 2008.
	The published national figures show that priority need homelessness acceptances relating to young people have reduced from 4,320 in 2008 to 2,060 in 2011.
	A robust homelessness safety net remains in place for young homeless people. Local authorities have a statutory duty to house 16 and 17-year-olds, care leavers under the age of 21, and people over 21 who are vulnerable as a result of being in care.
	The Ministerial Working Group on Homelessness second report ‘Making every contact count’, stresses the importance of supporting vulnerable young people to make a successful transition to adulthood. It champions a model of a ‘positive youth accommodation pathway' for those who cannot stay within the family network or are leaving care. The report can be obtained from the Department's website at:
	www.gov.uk/government/publications/making-every-contact-count-a-joint-approach-to-preventing-homelessness
	We have invested £470 million over four years (2011-12 to 2014-15) to help local authorities and voluntary partners prevent and tackle all forms of homelessness including single homelessness, rough sleeping and repossessions.

Housing: Construction

Nick Raynsford: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many new dwelling construction starts there were in each local authority area in England in each quarter from 2005 to the latest quarter for which figures are available. [R]

Mark Prisk: holding answer 20 December 2012
	Information about building starts for each quarter from Q1 2005 to Q3 2012 in each local authority area is published in the Department's live table 253a, at the following link:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-house-building
	We advise caution when using local authority level data on a quarterly basis as it is not recommended simply to compare one quarter with the next for an individual authority. At a local authority level, figures are not seasonally adjusted and can anyway be subject to considerable volatility.
	At the end of the last Administration, housebuilding had fallen to its lowest peacetime levels since the 1920s. Under this Government, housebuilding starts in England were 29% higher in 2011 compared to 2009.

Non-domestic Rates

Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what methodology his Department used to calculate the assumed level of business rates for each local authority for the years 2013-14 and 2014-15; and if he will place in the Library any supporting documents.

Brandon Lewis: The basis of the calculations of the baseline funding levels for each local authority for the years 2013-14 and 2014-15 are set out in the draft Local Government Finance Report for 2013-14 and 2014-15. These are available from:
	http://www.local.communities.gov.uk/finance/1314/1314LGFRr.pdf
	http://www.local.communities.gov.uk/finance/1314/1415LGFRr.pdf

Non-domestic Rates

Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assumptions he has made about the level of growth in business rate income for each local authority in estimating business rate income for the years 2013-14 and 2014-15; and what predicted levels of economic growth such assumptions are based upon.

Brandon Lewis: The Department has not estimated the level of growth in each local authority's income for the years 2013-14 and 2014-15. In accordance with the Office for Budget Responsibility's forecast of the change in the all items retail prices index for quarter 3 of 2013, the local share element of the Estimated business rates aggregate is assumed to increase between 2013-14 and 2014-15 by 3.1%.

Senior Civil Servants

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many and what proportion of officials of the three most senior grades in his Department have (a) resigned, (b) taken voluntary early retirement, (c) left the Department for alternative employment, (d) been dismissed, (e) taken long-term sick leave and (f) taken administrative leave since May 2010.

Brandon Lewis: In the period 1 May 2010 to 31 December 2012, staff at Director-level, Senior Civil Service Pay Band 2, and above:
	(a) Two staff resigned (5%).
	(b) Three staff took voluntary early retirement (8%).
	(d) No staff were dismissed.
	(e) One member of staff took a period of long-term sick leave (3%).
	(f) One member of staff has taken a short period of paid special leave following a family bereavement (3%).
	Figures for (c) staff leaving for alternative employment are not held centrally, however in addition to the two staff above that resigned, a further four staff transferred to other Government Departments.
	These reductions in staffing reflect the fact that the DCLG Group is reducing its running costs by 44% in real terms over the spending review period.

Smoke Alarms

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether the types of fire and smoke detectors fitted by fire brigades in residential properties have an audible warning to the occupants to indicate when the battery has come to the end of its working life.

Brandon Lewis: We do not monitor the type of smoke alarm installed by individual fire and rescue authorities as part of their community safety activity. The Department's Fire Kills campaign works with fire and rescue authorities to encourage people to regularly test their smoke alarms so they can replace them when necessary. Notwithstanding, the British Standard for smoke alarms states that an audible fault warning must sound before an increase in the internal resistance or decrease in the terminal voltage of the battery prevents correct operation.

Smoke Alarms

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate he has made of the number of fire and smoke detectors fitted by fire brigades in residential properties that will need replacing in the next five years.

Brandon Lewis: No estimate has been made. A smoke alarm's lifespan is dependent upon a number of factors such as how well it was maintained and the number of times it has been activated. The Department's Fire Kills campaign works with fire and rescue authorities to encourage people to regularly test their smoke alarms to ensure they continue to work.

Staff

Mike Freer: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much his Department spent on (a) recruitment agency fees, (b) outplacement agency fees for displaced or redundant staff and (c) staff training in each of the last 12 months.

Brandon Lewis: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave him on 22 January 2013, Official Report, column 214W.

Taxis

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much his Department spent on taxis in 2011-12.

Brandon Lewis: Reflecting our responsibilities for local government, housing, planning and communities, the work of the Department involves staff travelling to different parts of the country.
	The Department spent £152,243 in 2011-12; this compares with £296,710 in 2009-10 and represents a halving of such spending.
	I would add that guidance to staff states that taxis can be used in circumstances such as:
	no other method of public transport is available (e.g. when travelling late at night);
	when carrying heavy baggage or equipment;
	if one is unable to use public transport because of pregnancy or a temporary or permanent disability;
	if there will be an overall saving including any claim for subsistence or to ensure journey connection or arrival time; and
	it is more cost-effective when travelling in a group.

CULTURE MEDIA AND SPORT

BBC

Alun Cairns: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment she has made of the BBC's recent report on the Economic Value of the BBC.

Edward Vaizey: I am pleased to see that the BBC is continuing to examine the wider economic impact of the licence fee. We have received the report and my officials will consider its findings.

BBC

Alun Cairns: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what discussions she has had with the BBC Trust about the BBC's expenditure across the UK and the different impact it has on the economy across the country's regions.

Edward Vaizey: I and my officials have regular meetings with the BBC Trust touching on a range of issues, including how BBC expenditure is allocated across the country.

Copyright

Mike Weatherley: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport with reference to her Department's publication, Modernising Copyright: a modern, robust and flexible framework, what uses the fair dealing exception for quotations is intended to facilitate.

Jo Swinson: The Berne Convention on copyright requires countries to allow quotations to be made from copyright works as long as their making is fair and their extent is justified. In line with this international requirement, the fair dealing exception for quotations will permit fair and reasonable uses of copyright works for purposes such as criticism, review, and commentary. It is for the Courts to determine which uses are fair on a case-by-case basis. Uses which might be considered fair dealing for the purpose of quotation include the use of citations in research papers, the use of titles to identify sources in a bibliography, and the use of titles and short extracts to identify hyperlinks in internet blogs and tweets.

Directors

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what declarations of interest must be made by her Department's non-executive directors; with what frequency any such declarations are required to be made; and if she will make that information publicly available.

Hugh Robertson: Non-executives must declare, to the Secretary of State or Permanent Secretary, any personal or business interest which may, or may be perceived to influence their judgment in performing their functions and obligations. These interests include (without limitation), personal direct and indirect pecuniary interests and any such interests of close family members and/or of people living in the same household as the non-executive or their close family members.
	Significant new interests must be declared as soon as they arise, and a full declaration of interest must be made annually. All conflicts of interest are disclosed in the Department's annual report and accounts. There are no plans to publish the register of interests for executive and non-executive board members, but this should be available on request.

Olympic Games 2012: Tickets

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many Olympic and Paralympic Games tickets were given to representatives of (a) Google, (b) Amazon, (c) Starbucks and (d) Vodafone; and to what degree a company's compliance with UK tax laws is a factor in her decision to grant that company complimentary tickets.

Hugh Robertson: The full list of those who received Government tickets can be found at:
	http://www.culture.gov.uk/publications/9672.aspx
	All invitations were issued against criteria agreed by the Cabinet Secretary. These were encouraging growth; encouraging health and sports participation; encouraging community engagement and volunteering.

Olympic Games 2012: Tickets

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport who authorised the purchase by the Government of tickets to the London 2012 Olympics by Ministers representing (a) the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, (b) the Department for Communities and Local Government and (c) the Cabinet Office; and on what grounds such Ministers were not requested to pay for such tickets.

Hugh Robertson: Following discussions with the relevant Departments, including ministerial discussions, the purchase of tickets for these Departments was authorised by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media, Olympics and Sport. All Ministers who received a ticket did so because they were attending on official Government business or as part of the Government Ambassador Programme.

Olympic Games 2012: Tickets

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport pursuant to the written statement of 18 January 2013, Official Report, column 47WS, on Olympic and Paralympic Games (Tickets), on what date the Government established the policy that the Government would purchase tickets for politicians not directly involved in the delivery of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games; who took the decision to establish that policy; and if she will make a statement.

Hugh Robertson: The London 2012 Ambassador programme was established in May 2012 by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media, Olympics and Sport. The Government Ambassador Programme was closely aligned with criteria agreed to govern the distribution of tickets purchased by the Government for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympics Games, namely; Encouraging Growth, Encouraging health and sports participation, Encouraging community engagement and volunteering.

Olympic Games 2012: Touting

Sharon Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what advice she has received from sources other than Operation Podium on ticket fraud and the secondary ticketing market; what assessment she has made of that advice; and what steps she plans to take as a result of that advice.

Hugh Robertson: The Department receives a range of representations on ticket fraud and the secondary ticketing market. The Government has no plans to change the legislative framework concerning the secondary ticket market. We will, however, continue to monitor this area.

Public Lending Right Office

Helen Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what progress she has made on determining the future location of the public lending rights offices; and if she will make a statement.

Edward Vaizey: The Government's response to the public consultation on the proposed transfer of the public lending right (PLR) function will be published shortly, alongside the final stage impact assessment. The response will set out the decision on the future administration of the PLR scheme.

Television: Licensing

Thomas Docherty: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport 
	(1)  whether local television licence holders will receive money from the television licence fee;
	(2)  whether local TV licence holders that receive money through the television licence fee are obliged to publish that they receive such funding;
	(3)  whether local TV licence holders will be able to receive funding through the television licence fee should their service not be financially viable;
	(4)  what safeguards she has put in place to ensure that all those involved with the production of broadcasts covered by local TV licences will receive remuneration.

Edward Vaizey: Local TV licence holders will be bound to conditions set as part of Ofcom-regulated local TV local digital television programme service (L-DTPS) licence. Licensees may enter into formal agreements with the BBC as part of the 2010 Licence Fee settlement, but may also choose to enter into their own commercial and contractual arrangements, including those associated with broadcast production. Those commercial arrangements are entirely a matter for the relevant parties.
	Licence Fee monies committed to the support of local TV—in both capital spend and content acquisition—will amount to no more than £40 million by 2017. Conditions around the use of that funding will be set out in the agreements between the BBC and the respective local TV licence holders. Both the BBC and the BBC Trust have published details of how these funding arrangements will work.

DEFENCE

Afghanistan

Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what UK armed forces equipment currently deployed in Afghanistan will not be returned to the UK.

Andrew Robathan: Final decisions on what equipment will and will not be returned to the UK have not yet been taken and will be decided on a case by case basis after considering the best value for money for the UK taxpayer.

Afghanistan

Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what items of his Department's equipment have been returned to the UK from Afghanistan; and in each case whether the equipment will be exported or reintegrated to the UK core equipment programme; and at what cost.

Andrew Robathan: Redeployment of material from Afghanistan began in earnest and as planned on 1 October 2012. As of 31 December 2012 and since 1 October 2012, it had already delivered the following:
	
		
			 Type of asset Number of units (rounded to the nearest 10) 
			 Vehicles 80 
			 Major equipment 50 
			 ISO containers or equivalent 230 
		
	
	On current planning, the majority of equipment that has already been redeployed from Afghanistan will be returned into the Ministry of Defence equipment programme. It will be refurbished at varying locations and cost dependent on the individual level of maintenance and repair work required which is yet to be fully confirmed.

Afghanistan

Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much his Department has spent on returning equipment from Afghanistan to the UK.

Andrew Robathan: Redeployment of equipment from Afghanistan began in earnest as planned on 1 October 2012. From this date until the end of December 2012, the cost of redeploying this equipment, excluding any movement by land in Afghanistan and the UK, is estimated at £8 million.

Afghanistan

Tom Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 17 January 2013, Official Report, column 889W, on Afghanistan, what factors he takes into account when determining whether the disclosure of information would be likely to prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of the armed forces.

Philip Dunne: The factors we take into account are consistent with the exemption Section 26 (Defence) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Africa

Gemma Doyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many of his Department's staff are based in (a) Mali, (b) Niger, (c) Nigeria, (d) Algeria, (e) Mauritania, (f) Burkina Faso, (g) Chad, (h) Libya, (i) Sudan, (j) South Sudan, (k) Ethiopia, (l) Somalia, (m) Kenya and (n) Western Sahara.

Andrew Murrison: The Ministry of Defence does not currently have any presence in Niger, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Western Sahara, or Chad.
	Around 50 Defence personnel are currently either permanently based or deployed on an enduring basis in Nigeria, Algeria, Libya, Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya, in Defence sections in our high commissions and embassies, in UN and other missions, and on a variety of defence engagement tasks.
	The UK operates a permanent British Army Training Unit in Kenya (BATUK) responsible for managing British Army training in country. Its manning fluctuates depending on training activities, but is usually around 150.
	We currently have around 20 personnel deployed in Bamako (Mali) under the auspices of Op Newcombe. Numbers fluctuate on a daily basis.

Africa

Gemma Doyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence on which dates (a) he and (b) each other Minister in his Department has visited (i) Mali, (ii) Niger, (iii) Nigeria, (iv) Algeria, (v) Mauritania, (vi) Burkina Faso, (vii) Chad, (viii) Libya, (ix) Sudan, (x) South Sudan, (xi) Ethiopia, (xii) Somalia, (xiii) Kenya and (xiv) Western Sahara since 2010.

Andrew Murrison: Details of ministerial travel are published quarterly and are available at the following website:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ministers-gifts-hospitality-travel-and-meetings

Armed Forces: Travel

Caroline Dinenage: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make it his policy to include travel by Gosport Ferry in the Home to Duty military travel reimbursement for the purposes of saving money and addressing road congestion.

Mark Francois: The strategic defence and security review set out a requirement to reduce expenditure on service and civil service allowances amounting to some £300 million per year. This work has included the simplification and harmonisation of the rules to reduce inconsistencies within some allowances, such as the reimbursement of the Gosport ferry travel. This was implemented from 31 March 2011, and is unlikely to change.

Bomb Disposal: Northern Ireland

Tobias Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence on how many occasions Explosive Ordnance Disposal personnel from his Department have responded to an incident in Northern Ireland in each year since 2010.

Andrew Robathan: The Explosive Ordnance Device teams in Northern Ireland respond with great professionalism to all requests for assistance. We will continue to support the Police Service of Northern Ireland in the most operationally effective way.
	Incidents requiring explosive ordnance disposal experts in Northern Ireland are dealt with solely by military personnel. The information requested on the number of occasions Explosive Ordnance Disposal personnel have responded to incidents in Northern Ireland is published annually in the Report of the Independent Reviewer of the Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Act 2007. Copies of the reports covering the years 2010, 2011 and up to July 2012 are available in the Library of the House.
	Between 1 August 2012 and 29 January 2013, Explosive Ordnance Disposal personnel have responded on a further 128 occasions to incidents in Northern Ireland.

Defence: Procurement

Penny Mordaunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence 
	(1)  if he will publish the costings for his Department's Equipment Procurement and Equipment Support Plans; and if he will make a statement;
	(2)  if he will provide a summary of planned expenditure by his Department in the maritime equipment and maritime equipment support sectors; and if he will make a statement.

Philip Dunne: holding answer 29 January 2013
	The summary of the Ministry of Defence Equipment Plan was published on 31 January 2013 alongside the National Audit Office assessment of the affordability of that plan. It includes details of our planned expenditure in all equipment and equipment support sectors, including the maritime sector.

Libya

Rehman Chishti: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 21 November 2012, Official Report, column 494W, on Libya, how many missions were undertaken solely by UK forces; and how many members of UK forces took part in armed remotely piloted air system missions.

Andrew Robathan: holding answer 24 January 2013
	Each mission that UK exchange officers contributed to over Libya in 2011 required a US sensor operator for the Predator remotely piloted air system. Therefore no missions were undertaken solely by UK forces. There were two UK officers on exchange with the US contributing to these missions.

Mali

Russell Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what requests for equipment to be deployed to Mali have been received from the French Government to date.

Andrew Robathan: The French Government requested UK assistance with logistics and intelligence as they deployed to Mali. Initially the UK provided two C17 transport aircraft. Currently the UK is providing one C17 and one Sentinel airborne surveillance aircraft. So far, the C17s have moved French armoured vehicles, personnel, and stores to Mali.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

Culture, Practices and Ethics of the Press Inquiry

John McDonnell: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister with reference to paragraph 83 of the summary of recommendations in Lord Justice Leveson's report on The Culture, Practices and Ethics of the Press, what steps he has taken to comply with the recommendations set out in that paragraph.

Nicholas Clegg: The Government already publish, on a quarterly basis, information about meetings between Ministers, permanent secretaries, special advisers and media proprietors, editors and senior executives. Cross-party talks about Lord Justice Leveson's recommendations, including the implementation of recommendations at paragraph 83 for Government Ministers and Front Bench Opposition spokesmen, are ongoing.

Trident

Thomas Docherty: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister which (a) Ministry of Defence establishments and (b) industrial facilities the Chief Secretary to the Treasury has visited as part of the Trident Alternatives Review.

Danny Alexander: I have been asked to reply 
	as the Minister responsible for the Trident Alternatives Review.
	I have visited the following establishments both in support of my role as a senior Cabinet Minister, and as the Minister overseeing the Trident Alternatives Review: Ministry of Defence Main Building, Her Majesty's Naval Base Clyde, and the Atomic Weapons Establishment site at Aldermaston.

Trident

Thomas Docherty: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister who the Chief Secretary to the Treasury has consulted as part of the Trident Alternatives Review.

Danny Alexander: I have been asked to reply 
	as the Minister responsible for the Trident Alternatives Review.
	The review draws on advice from officials in the Cabinet Office, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and the Ministry of Defence.

EDUCATION

Billing

John Woodcock: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what the average time taken by his Department to settle invoices to external suppliers or contractors was in each of the last three financial years.

Elizabeth Truss: The following information outlines payments made by the Department for the previous three financial accounting years.
	The Department is legally required to pay correctly submitted invoices within 30 days of receipt from the day of physical or electronic arrival at the nominated address of the Department. In addition, it is practice for the Department to pay all correctly submitted invoices within 10 calendar days.
	
		
			  Financial year: 
			  December 2009 to March 2010 2010-11 2011-12 
			 Payment days 10 30 10 30 10 30 
			 Number of payments made 28,677 28,677 52,034 52,034 43,445 43,445 
			 Payments within target 27,978 29,135 50,330 52,865 42,450 44,201 
			        
			 Performance (percentage) 95.37 99.31 94.13 98.87 95.20 99.13

Children: Day Care

Sharon Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education 
	(1)  how much the Government spent on (a) supply-side and (b) demand-side support for child care in all forms in each of the last five financial years;
	(2)  what estimate he has made of the change in spending by local authorities on (a) subsidising and (b) directly providing child care since May 2010.

Elizabeth Truss: Central and local government spending on support for child care has been:
	
		
			 £ million 
			  Supply-side support Demand-side support 
			 2011-12 2,122 800 
			 2010-11 508 2,198 
			 2009-10 345 2,168 
		
	
	
		
			 2008-09 241 2,067 
			 2007-08 86 1,764 
			 Note: All figures are rounded to the nearest million 
		
	
	Supply-side funding includes:
	Local authority reported revenue expenditure on free early education places for three and four-year-olds (for 2011-12 only);
	Local authority reported revenue expenditure on free early education places for two-year-olds (2007-12);
	Local authority reported revenue expenditure on Childcare Sufficiency and Access from within the Sure Start, Early Years and Childcare Grant (2007-11); and
	Local authority reported capital expenditure on Early Years and Childcare, Quality and Access from within the Sure Start, Early Years and Childcare Grant (2008-11).
	Complete data for expenditure on free early education places for three and four-year-olds are only available from 2011-12 following the introduction of the Early Years Single Funding Formula. Prior to 2011-12 spending data on free early education were not separately disaggregated from the rest of school budgets.
	It is not possible to disaggregate capital funding for child care in 2007-08 from wider capital expenditure in that year's Sure Start Grant, therefore no data on capital spend have been included for 2007-08.
	The Department does not hold data on local authority discretionary expenditure on subsidised or directly-provided child care.
	Demand-side funding includes:
	Estimated expenditure on the child care element of working tax credit (2007-11); and
	Estimated expenditure on tax and national insurance relief on employer supported childcare (2007-12).
	Estimated expenditure on the child care element of working tax credit is only available until 2010-11. Estimates for 2011-12 will be published in May 2013.
	These figures do not include expenditure on child care as a consequence of housing benefit disregard.

Children’s Centres

Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what assessment his Department has made of the number of children's centres (a) which have closed since 2010 and (b) are due to close between 2013 and 2015; and if he will make a statement.

Elizabeth Truss: Information supplied by local authorities on the Sure Start-On database showed that between April 2010 and end of December 2012, there were 29 outright children's centre closures. This is less than 1% of all children's centres. The Department does not collect information on possible future closures but expects local authorities to update the Sure Start-On database when a children's centre is closed.
	Local authorities have sufficient funding to ensure they are able to maintain a network of children's centres. They have duties under the Childcare Act 2006 to ensure sufficient provision of children's centres, and to consult before opening, closing or significantly changing services provided through children's centres. It is for them, in consultation with their local communities, to determine the most effective way of delivering children's centre services to meet local need.

Conditions of Employment

Julie Elliott: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many people are employed on zero-hour contracts in his Department.

Elizabeth Truss: The Department does not employ any people on zero hours contracts.

Departmental Responsibilities

Sharon Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education 
	(1)  which Minister within his Department has responsibility for disabled children; and for what reasons this area of policy no longer appears in the list of ministerial responsibilities;
	(2)  which Minister within his Department has responsibility for families policy; and for what reasons this area of policy no longer appears in the list of ministerial responsibilities;
	(3)  which Minister within his Department has responsibility for children and young people's health and wellbeing (drugs, alcohol, teenage pregnancy, obesity); and for what reasons this area of policy no longer appears in the list of ministerial responsibilities;
	(4)  which Minister within his Department has responsibility for the community and voluntary sector; and for what reasons this area of policy no longer appears in the list of ministerial responsibilities;
	(5)  which Minister within his Department has responsibility for bullying; and for what reasons this area of policy no longer appears in the list of ministerial responsibilities;
	(6)  which Minister within his Department has responsibility for the United Nations Convention on Human Rights of the Child; and for what reasons this area of policy no longer appears in the list of ministerial responsibilities;
	(7)  which Minister within his Department has responsibility for home education; and for what reasons this area of policy no longer appears in the list of ministerial responsibilities;
	(8)  which Minister within his Department has responsibility for international policy; and for what reasons this area of policy no longer appears in the list of ministerial responsibilities;
	(9)  which Minister within his Department has responsibility for employer engagement; and for what reasons this area of policy no longer appears in the list of ministerial responsibilities;
	(10)  which Minister within his Department has responsibility for young carers; and for what reasons this area of policy no longer appears in the list of ministerial responsibilities.

Elizabeth Truss: All Department for Education Ministers share collective responsibility for all areas of the Department for Education's interests.
	Within the Department for Education, the Under-Secretary of State for Education, my hon. Friend the Member for Crewe and Nantwich (Mr Timpson), has responsibility for disabled children. The Under-Secretary of State for Skills, my hon. Friend the Member for West Suffolk (Matthew Hancock), has responsibility for international policy and employer engagement while I have responsibility for bullying, the United Nations Convention on Human Rights of the Child, home education and young carers.
	Issues such as families policy; children and young people's health and wellbeing (drugs, alcohol, teenage pregnancy, obesity); and the community and voluntary sector impact on and influence many of the Department's policies and objectives. All Department for Education Ministers share collective responsibility for these areas, as and when they interact with their particular ministerial portfolios.
	A more comprehensive published list of individual ministerial responsibilities can be found on the Departmental for Education website at:
	https://www.education.gov.uk/aboutdfe/departmentalinformation/ministerialteam
	The published list of individual ministerial responsibilities does not cover everything Ministers do, but provides a guide to some of Ministers' key individual areas of responsibility.

Directors

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what declarations of interest must be made by his Department's non-executive directors; with what frequency any such declarations are required to be made; and if he will make that information publicly available.

Elizabeth Truss: In line with Treasury guidance on good governance and the production of departmental accounts, the DFE maintains a register of interests. This contains “details of company directorships and other significant interests held by Board members which may conflict with their management responsibilities”. These declarations are formally required once a year. In addition, board members can add or subtract interests as changes occur throughout the year,
	The Department currently has two non-executive board members: Dame Sue John and Theodore Agnew.
	The most recent version of the published accounts is dated September 2012 and is available on the Department's website at the following link:
	http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/a/9156_tso_dfe_annual_rep_2011-12.pdf
	It includes details of interests which are considered to be related to the Department's business. The relevant section can be found at page 115.
	Information detailing the arrangements for the full viewing of the register can also be found in the accounts at page 7.
	A copy of the full accounts has been placed in the Library of the House for ease of reference.

Early Intervention Grant

Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what recent representations he has received relating to the Early Intervention Grant.

Elizabeth Truss: The Secretary of State for Education, my right hon. Friend the Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove), has received correspondence from a number of local authorities concerning the Early Intervention Grant, from representative bodies such as the Local Government Association as well as representations and correspondence from Members of Parliament.

Financial Services: Education

Mark Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many schools participated in the National Strategy for Financial Capability; and how many of those schools continue to provide financial education.

Elizabeth Truss: The National Strategy for Financial Capability was set up in 2003 by the then Financial Services Authority, under the previous Administration. We do not hold any information on how many schools participated in this strategy or how many have continued to provide financial education as part of this particular initiative.
	Schools are free to cover financial education as part of non-statutory Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education. PSHE lessons provide a forum for teachers to build upon the core knowledge gained in mathematics and supplement that with specific teaching of financial issues and skills.

GCE AS-level

Kevin Brennan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what assessment he has made of the recent Cambridge University Admissions Research Working Party study of the effectiveness of AS levels as a predictor for degree performance.

Elizabeth Truss: holding answer 30 January 2013
	In considering changes to A levels, the Secretary of State for Education, my right hon. Friend the Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove), and I have spoken to a number of universities and reflected on the range of available evidence, including the Cambridge University Admissions Research Working Party study into the effectiveness of the AS level as a predictor of degree course performance. While the current AS level qualification may be a useful aid for university admissions, academics have indicated that the current A levels do not provide an adequate preparation for undergraduate degrees. New linear A level qualifications will benefit students by reducing the burden of assessment and promoting deeper understanding. Retaining a standalone AS level qualification will enable students to continue to study a broad curriculum post-16.

GCE AS-level

Kevin Brennan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education 
	(1)  what the funding arrangements will be under his planned reform of AS level if a student sits Year 12/AS and then goes on to take a full A-level;
	(2)  whether, under his proposed reform to A and AS levels, funding for maintained sector students will be limited to three subjects at A-level.

Elizabeth Truss: holding answer 30 January 2013
	Funding for 16 to 19-year-olds in schools and colleges will shift to a “per student” basis from 2013/14. The funding provision will be based on an average of 600 teaching hours per academic year for a full-time programme of study. Institutions should decide what courses to offer to their students, but on average, this will allow A level students the opportunity to take three A levels and one AS level or other similar sized qualification. The Department is currently considering funding arrangements for larger programmes of study.

GCSE

Clive Betts: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what proportion of pupils achieved five A* to C grades at GCSE level (a) in England and (b) in each local education authority area in each year since 1997.

Elizabeth Truss: The requested information at national level since 1997 is available from our recent statistical first release (SFR) "GCSE and Equivalent Results in England, 2011/12 (Revised)".
	http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00219173/gcse-and-equivalent-results
	Please see the second link under "Downloads" and then table 1a.
	The requested information at local authority level for 1997 to 2012 is available as follows:
	2012
	http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00219173/gcse-and-equivalent-results
	(third link under "Downloads" and then table 16).
	2011
	http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00201306/dfe-gcse-and-equivalent-results-in-england-201011-revised
	(fifth link under "Downloads" and then table 16).
	2010
	http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00196648/gcse-and-equivalent-results-in-england
	(fourth link under "Downloads" and then table 16).
	2009
	http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00196306/ks4-results-in-england-2008-09-(revised)
	(fourth link under "Downloads" and then table 16).
	2008
	http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00195931/gcse-and-equivalent-results-in-england
	(fourth link under "Downloads" and then table 18).
	2007
	http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00195692/dcsf-gcse-and-equivalent-examination-results-in-en
	(fourth link under "Downloads" and then table 18).
	2006
	http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00195387/gcse-and-equivalent-examination-results-in-england
	(fourth link under "Downloads" and then table 18).
	2005
	http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00195219/gcse-and-equivalent-results-and-associated-value-a
	(final link under "Downloads" section and then table 18).
	2004
	http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00194820/gcse-and-equivalent-results-and-associated-value-a
	(third link under "Downloads" and then table 16).
	2003
	http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00194359/gcse-gnvq-results-and-key-stage-3-to-gcse-gnvq-val
	(third link under "Downloads" and then table 12).
	2002
	http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00193938/national-curriculum-assessments-for-key-stage-3-(r
	(final link under "Downloads" section and then table 5).
	2001
	http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00193811/gcse-gnvq-and-gce-a-as-vce-advanced-gnvq-examinati
	(second link under "Downloads" section and then table 16).
	2000
	http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00193666/public-examinations-gcse-gnvq-and-gce-agnvq-in-eng
	(link under "Downloads" and then pages 30-32, table 4a).
	1999
	http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00193411/public-examinations-gcse-gnvq-and-gce-agnvq-in-eng
	(link under "Downloads" and then pages 29-31, table 4a).
	1998
	http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00193142/public-examinations-gcse-gnvq-and-gce-agnvq-in-eng
	(link under "Downloads" section and then pages 29-31, table 4a).
	1997
	The requested information for 1997 has been placed in the House Libraries.

Meetings

Kevin Brennan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education on how many occasions and on what dates he has met representatives of (a) the Russell Group, (b) Universities UK, (c) 1994 Group and (d) Million+ since May 2010.

Elizabeth Truss: The Secretary of State for Education, my right hon. Friend the Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove), and other Education Ministers have met a wide range of representatives of universities, and their mission groups.
	To gather the information requested would incur disproportionate costs, but information about Ministers' meetings with external organisations is published periodically and is available at:
	www.education.gov.uk/aboutdfe/departmentalinformation/transparency

Ministers’ Private Offices

Tom Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many full-time equivalent staff at each Civil Service grade are employed in his private office; and what the cost is of their annual salaries.

Elizabeth Truss: The Secretary of State for Education, my right hon. Friend the Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove), has nine full-time staff in his Private Office at a total annual salary cost of £359,156.
	The grades are as follows:
	
		
			 Grade Number of staff 
			 Senior Civil Service 1 
			 Grade 6 2 
			 Higher Executive Officer 2 
			 Executive Officer 2 
			 Executive Assistant 2

National Curriculum Tests

Clive Betts: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what proportion of students (a) in total and (b) in each local education authority area achieved level four or above at key stage two examinations in (i) English, (ii) mathematics, (iii) science and (iv) English and mathematics combined in each year since 1997.

Elizabeth Truss: The Department for Education publishes two statistical releases per year providing statistics based on National Curriculum Assessments at the end of Key Stage 2.
	2012
	http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/a00217264/nca-ks2-2011
	Table 1 of the national tables provides a time series for England which shows the percentage of pupils achieving level 4 or above in each of English and mathematics since 1995. It is important to note that the measure of English in 2012 (and consequentially the measure of both English and mathematics) is not comparable to previous years. This issue is discussed in the main text of the statistical release available as a PDF download at the above link.
	The percentage of pupils achieving level 4 in both English and mathematics in England in 1997 to 2012 is shown in the following table:
	
		
			 Percentage of pupils achieving level 4 or above in both English and mathematics, years: 1997 -2012(1), coverage: England (all schools)(2) 
			  Percentage 
			 1997 53 
			 1998 52 
			 1999 62 
			 2000 65 
			 2001 64 
			 2002 66 
		
	
	
		
			 2003 66 
			 2004 68 
			 2005 69 
			 2006 70 
			 2007 71 
			 2008 73 
			 2009 72 
			 2010 73 
			 2011 74 
			 2012(3) 79 
			 (1) Figures for 2012 are revised; figures are final for all other years. (2) Figures include those independent schools that chose to take part in Key Stage 2 assessments. (3) In 2012, English was calculated from reading test results and writing teacher assessment rather than from reading and writing tests as in previous years. English in 2012 is, therefore, not comparable to previous years. 
		
	
	Tables 12 and 15 of the local authority tables show the percentage of pupils in each local authority achieving level 4 or above in each of English and mathematics. Table 20 shows the percentage of pupils in each local authority achieving level 4 or above in both English and mathematics for 2007-12. Tests in science for the whole end of Key Stage 2 cohort ceased after 2009 and from that point were only administered on a sample basis for the production of national level figures only. This information was published in September 2012 and is available on the Department's website at the following link:
	http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00213778/national-curriculum-assessments-ks2-england
	Table 9 of the national tables shows the national level estimates of the percentage of pupils achieving level 4 or above in science for 2010-12.
	2011
	http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00200453/dfe-national-curriculum-assessments-at-key-stage-2-in-england-20102011-revised
	Table 11 (first link under "Downloads") of the local authority tables shows the percentage of pupils in each local authority achieving level 4 or above in each of English and mathematics in 2011.
	2010
	http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00196600/national-curriculum-assessments-at-key-stage-2-in
	Table 8 (sixth link under "Downloads") shows the percentage of pupils in each local authority achieving level 4 or above in each of English and mathematics in 2010.
	2009
	http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00196257/national-curriculum-assessrnents-at-key-stage-2
	Table 1 (third link under "Downloads") shows the percentage of pupils achieving level 4 or above in science in England from 1995-2009 based on tests for the whole cohort at the end of Key Stage 2. Table 7 (fourth link under "Downloads") shows the percentage of pupils in each local authority achieving level 4 or above in each of English, mathematics and science in 2009. Table 11 shows the percentage of pupils in each local authority achieving level 4 or above in both English and mathematics for 2005-09. Local authority level information for the percentage of pupils achieving level 4 or above in both English and mathematics for 1997-2004 could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
	The remaining links show the percentage of pupils in each local authority achieving level 4 or above in each of English, mathematics and science:
	2008
	http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00196000/national-curriculum-assessments-at-key-stage-2-in
	(third link under "Downloads" and then table 8).
	2007
	http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00195681/dcsf-national-curriculum-assessments-at-key-stage
	(fourth link under "Downloads" and then table 8).
	2006
	http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00195370/national-curriculurn-assessments-at-key-stage-2-in
	(fourth link under "Downloads" and then table 9).
	2005
	http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00195195/national-curriculum-assessrnents-at-key-stage-2-and
	(fourth link under "Downloads" and then table 11).
	2004
	http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00194802/national-curriculum-assessments-at-key-stage-2-and
	(fourth link under "Downloads" and then table 11).
	2003
	http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00194159/national-curriculum-assessrrtents-and-key-stage-1-to
	(third link under "Downloads" and then table 3).
	2002
	http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00193874/national-curriculum-assessments-of-7-11-and-14-year
	(fifth link under "Downloads" and then table 15).
	2001
	http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00193845/national-curriculum-assessments-of-7-11-and-14-year
	(second link under "Downloads" and then table 3).
	2000
	http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00193674/national-curriculum-assessments-of-7-11-and-14-year
	(second link under "Downloads" and then table 3).
	1999
	http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00193416/national-curriculum-assessments-of-7-11-and-14-year
	(second link under "Downloads" and then table 3).
	1998
	http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00193261/national-curriculum-assessments-of-7-11-and-14-year
	(second link under "Downloads" and then table 3).
	1997
	http://www.education.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SBU/b000038/index.shtml
	(table 3 has been placed in the House Libraries).

Pre-school Education

Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what steps his Department is taking to fund free care places for two year olds (a) in 2015, (b) in 2016 and (c) after 2016.

Elizabeth Truss: In the 2011 autumn statement the Chancellor announced funding of £760 million in 2014-15 for the early education of two-year-olds from lower income households. Decisions on funding for future years are subject to the outcome of the spending review.
	From 2013-14 onwards, funding will be allocated to local authorities through the ring-fenced Dedicated Schools Grant. Details of allocation to individual local authorities were published on 27 November 2012. This can be found on the Department's website at:
	http://www.education.gov.uk/childrenandyoungpeople/earlylearningandchildcare/delivery/Free%20Entitlement%20to%20Early%20Education/b0070114/eefortwoyearolds/la-funding-allocations

Seaham School of Technology

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Education when the new Seaham School of Technology will be complete.

Elizabeth Truss: Seaham School of Technology is in one of the first batches of schools in the Priority School Building Programme that the Department has commenced work with. We plan to release this batch to the market as soon as possible and expect the schools in this batch to be completed in 2015 and 2016.

Special Educational Needs

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many young people aged (a) 15 and under and (b) between 16 and 24 with special educational needs in each local authority were educated outside that authority in each of the last three years; and what the cost of such provision was to each such authority.

Edward Timpson: The available information has been placed in the House Libraries.
	The Department does not hold information on the cost of such provision to each local authority.
	The figures provided for 16 to 24-year-olds only cover young people recorded as having special educational needs (SEN) in schools taken from the School Census. This classification is not used in further education, colleges, where young people self-declare whether they have any learning difficulties or disabilities (LDD). However, it would incur disproportionate costs to determine the numbers of 16 to 24-year-olds recorded as having LDD and studying in further education colleges outside of their home local authority, so these numbers have not been provided.

ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Energy Tariffs

Alec Shelbrooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what steps his Department is taking to make it easier for people who do not have access to the internet to access cheaper energy tariffs.

Edward Davey: My Department is taking a number of steps which will help all households to get better energy deals. We will bring forward amendments to the Energy Bill to ensure that consumers, including those without internet access, are on the cheapest tariff that meets their preferences. We will also ensure consumers have clear personalised information on energy consumption and costs that will make it easier for them to use telephone price comparison services. We are also seeking a step change to country-wide access to collective switching schemes, particularly targeting vulnerable and low income customers.

Electricity

Barry Gardiner: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change 
	(1)  what discussions he has had with ministerial colleagues in other departments on ensuring that the Energy Bill delivers the maximum benefit to UK businesses and their supply chains;
	(2)  what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills on the potential effect of the Energy Bill on small and medium-sized enterprises and their supply chains.

John Hayes: DECC Ministers meet regularly with Ministers in BIS and other Government Departments to discuss a range of issues. As has been the case with successive Administrations, it is not the Government's practice to provide details of all such meetings.
	As set out in Annual Energy Statement we need to attract around £110 billon of private sector investment in the UK's energy infrastructure over the next decade. This offers a large opportunity for the UK; we are committed to maximising the benefits of the investment to the UK—including opportunities for the UK's supply chain in large companies and SMEs and job creation. Among a range of indicatives are the forthcoming energy sector strategies for offshore wind, nuclear and the oil and gas sectors. These will be outward-facing and jointly agreed with industry, with a whole-government approach. These strategies will cover key themes such as setting out the vision for the sector and the actions we can take (industry and government) as to how this will be achieved. This will include a narrative on where the sector is now, what are the drivers that influence it, including market potential, and the key barriers that are holding the sector back.

Energy: Prices

Andrew Stephenson: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what steps he is taking to reduce consumers' energy bills.

Edward Davey: We have a range of initiatives to help people with their energy bills, including tariff reforms, energy saving programmes and additional help for those on the lowest incomes.
	From our proposals to help get consumers on the cheapest tariffs, to the Green Deal, from the Warm Home Discount to our promotion of collective switching, this Government is working to help people keep their energy bills down.

Energy: Scotland

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what assessment he has made of the regional market share in Scotland of each of the big six energy suppliers.

John Hayes: Data on the market share of the big six energy suppliers in Scotland are not available. However, Ofgem published data on the market share of the ‘big six’ energy suppliers in Great Britain in their Retail Market Review in October 2012. This suggested the following overall market shares, averaged across both electricity and gas:
	
		
			  Percentage 
			 British Gas 32 
			 EDF 12 
			 E.On 16 
			 RWE nPower 13 
			 Scottish Power 10 
			 SSE 17 
		
	
	The report containing these findings can be found here, with the market shares detailed on pages 35-36:
	http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Markets/RetMkts/rmr/Documents1/The%20Retail%20Market%20Review%20-%20Updated%20domestic%20proposals.pdf

Energy: Security

Philip Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what steps he is taking with other Government departments and energy companies to ensure the security from terrorism of UK-based energy-related facilities and UK staff working in energy-related facilities abroad.

John Hayes: The Government keep the security of UK energy facilities under constant review working closely with site owners and operators who are responsible for the protection of their assets and workforce.
	The Foreign and Commonwealth Office supports British nationals around the world through consular services and maintains close relations with UK energy companies both in London and through its network of posts. FCO has been co-ordinating urgently with British and western oil companies in the region following the In Amenas attack to engage with them on extra security precautions they might consider, and in their relations with the host countries that remain responsible for their security.

Fuel Poverty

Sharon Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what assessment he has made of changes in the level of fuel poverty since 2010.

Gregory Barker: The latest annual fuel poverty publication estimates that during the first year of the coalition Government fuel poverty fell by 500,000 to 3.5 million households in England. It is projected the number of households in fuel poverty would remain the same in 2011, but likely to increase again in 2012.
	The next fuel poverty statistics are due to be released on 16 May 2013.

Green Deal Scheme

Mark Menzies: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what recent progress he has made on the Green Deal.

Gregory Barker: The Green Deal went live on Monday 28 January when the first consumers were able to sign Green Deal plans and the Government's ‘Green Deal With It' communications campaign, aimed at building consumer understanding and trust in the initiative, was launched.

Green Deal Scheme

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many Green Deal assessments have been carried out in (a) the UK, (b) Scotland, (c) England and (d) Wales since 1 October 2012.

Gregory Barker: The Green Deal is a market mechanism, and data on assessments undertaken are not collected centrally until they are ‘lodged' on a central register. However, feedback from a number of organisations active in the market suggests that several hundred assessments have already been conducted.
	There can be a time-lag of up to a fortnight before the outputs of these assessments are lodged. DECC are finalising their arrangements for quality checking the lodged data, and we will be publishing regular reports covering a range of statistical data, including the number of assessments lodged, with a breakdown across England and the devolved Administrations in Great Britain. Plans for the release of these data, in line with statistics protocols, will be announced shortly.

Microgeneration

Margaret Ritchie: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change which microgeneration projects are supported by his Department; and what plans he has to support the development of microgeneration projects.

Gregory Barker: Electricity from microgeneration is supported under the feed-in tariffs (FITs) offering financial support for the electricity generated by solar PV, wind, hydro, anaerobic digestion and micro-CHP technologies. 400,000 installations are currently registered. There are also over 1,000 installations registered under the renewables obligation in Northern Ireland
	Heat from microgeneration is currently supported by the Renewable Heat Premium Payment (RHPP) scheme, which offers grants to householders and social landlords to help with the cost of solar thermal panels, heat pumps and biomass boilers. Over 10,000 installations have been completed under RHPP so far, with around 5,000 additional installations expected before the scheme closes. The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) offers tariffs for renewable heat generation and is currently available for non-domestic applications, with 175 microgeneration installations supported. The Green Deal will also help support microgeneration projects through providing loan finance.
	We have recently held a comprehensive review of the FITs scheme and will monitor progress over the remainder of the year. The Government consulted on proposals for a domestic RHI and extensions to the non-domestic RHI schemes in autumn 2012. We will be publishing our responses shortly, with our plan to launch the domestic RHI scheme and implement the extensions to the non-domestic RHI later in the year.

Natural Gas: Prices

Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what assessment he has made of the trends and costs of wholesale gas prices in each year since 2007; and if he will make a statement.

John Hayes: Data on the average annual wholesale gas price for 2007 to 2012 are presented in the following table. Gas prices rose significantly in 2008 as the price of oil reached historically high levels. Many gas supply contracts in continental Europe are indexed to oil prices and the interconnectedness of the UK and European gas markets means the oil price often affects UK wholesale gas prices.
	Following 2008, increased availability of LNG and the global recession resulted in a significant decrease in the gas prices. This has subsequently been offset as growth in gas demand (particularly from Asia) has outstripped new supply leading to increases in gas prices.
	
		
			 UK wholesale gas price (nominal terms) 
			  Price (p/therm) Year on year change (%) 
			 2007 30.05 -25 
			 2008 58.02 93 
			 2009 30.78 -47 
			 2010 42.44 38 
			 2011 56.30 33 
			 2012 59.70 6 
			 Source: ICIS Heren

Offshore Industry: Arctic

Zac Goldsmith: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what recent discussions his Department has had with (a) Tullow Oil, (b) Faroe Petroleum, (c) Valiant Petroleum, (d) Cairn Energy and (e) Shell on the safety of drilling for oil or gas in the Arctic Circle.

John Hayes: The Department has held no such discussions specifically on this issue.

Procurement

Julian Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what proportion of procurement contracts offered by his Department has been advertised on the Contracts Finder website since that website's inception.

Gregory Barker: The Department of Energy and Climate Change does not record the total numbers of all contracts let centrally. The Department advertises contract opportunities for work with an estimated value at over £10,000 on the Contracts Finder website.
	To date, 76 contract opportunities have been advertised on Contracts Finder since its inception. The Department has in addition published documentation on 83 contracts that have been procured either through Contracts Finder adverts or through the Government Procurement Service frameworks.
	The figures shown above may not be a complete record of all contracts let as some contracts may be excluded from publication for commercial sensitivity or security reasons.

Renewables Obligation

Graham Stringer: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change pursuant to the answer of 6 December 2012, Official Report, column 871W, on renewables obligation, and with reference to paragraph 20 of HM Government Impact Assessment Toolkit published in August 2011, for what reasons his Department's impact assessment on the Renewables Obligation Transition, published on 29 November 2012, did not contain calculations in order to monetise fully all costs and benefits.

John Hayes: As I advised the hon. Member on 6 December, Official Report, column 871W, the impact assessment (IA) contained in the Electricity Market Reform (EMR) package covering the renewables obligation (RO) Transition was purely qualitative in nature at this stage of policy development. It was a final IA for primary legislation. The detailed and quantitative IA will come when we consult on the specifics of RO transition for secondary legislation. We intend to consult on the handling of the 2014-17 transition period in 2013, and on the management of the Fixed ROC in 2014.
	In the interim, DECC will continue to seek and compile further evidence to inform the response to any RO Transition consultation.

ENVIRONMENT FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

Conditions of Employment

Julie Elliott: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many people are employed on zero-hour contracts in his Department.

Richard Benyon: Core DEFRA does not employ any staff on zero-hour contracts.

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether he has made any recent proposals to strengthen CITES.

Richard Benyon: The UK fully supports efforts to strengthen the operation and governance of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and a number of proposals have been submitted on this to the forthcoming meeting of the Conference of Parties. These include two proposals from the EU that the UK has helped develop. The first aims to improve the transparency of decision-making at CITES Conferences of Parties by preserving the exceptional nature of secret ballots other than for the election of officers or host countries. The second aims to ensure transparency in the election of members of the CITES Animals and Plants Committees and avoid potential conflicts of interest during the course of the Committees' work.

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent meetings he has had on CITES.

Richard Benyon: I have had a number of recent meetings with DEFRA officials and others to discuss matters relating to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), in particular about the 16th meeting of the Conference of Parties (CoP) to CITES in March. These have included meetings with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) such as the Tusk Trust, Elephant Family and International Fund for Animal Welfare and a bilateral meeting with the US Fish and Wildlife Service to discuss the USA's proposal to transfer the polar bear to Appendix I of CITES.
	In addition, DEFRA officials have held various meetings with EU counterparts, officials from other Government Departments, scientific advisers and NGOs to discuss CITES implementation and the forthcoming CoP.

Directors

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what declarations of interest must be made by his Department's non-executive directors; with what frequency any such declarations are required to be made; and if he will make that information publicly available.

Richard Benyon: On appointment, non-executive directors for the core DEFRA supervisory board are asked to declare potential conflicts of interest and these are recorded.
	Non-executives must declare any personal or business interest which may, or may be perceived (by a reasonable member of the public) to influence their judgment in performing their functions and obligations. These interests include (without limitation), personal direct and indirect pecuniary interests and any such interests of close family members and/or of people living in the same household as the non-executive or their close family members.
	The Financial Reporting Manual (FReM), requires Departments to disclose details of company directorships and other significant interests held by board members which may conflict with their management responsibilities. The Corporate Governance Code provides that the board should agree and document an appropriate system to record and manage conflicts and potential conflicts of interest of board members. These records are updated on an annual basis. As set out in the code, the board should publish, in its governance statement, how any identified conflicts, and potential conflicts, of interest of board members have been managed. The Corporate Governance Code can be found here:
	http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/psr_governance_corporate.htm
	The details of how potential conflicts of interest have been dealt with are set out in the DEFRA annual report and accounts for 2011-12. The DEFRA 2011-12 annual report and accounts can be found here:
	http://www.defra.gov.uk/publications/2012/07/26/annual-report-2011-12/

Ecology: Woking

Jonathan Lord: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what ecological projects his Department has provided funding for in Woking constituency since May 2010.

Richard Benyon: Through Natural England, the Forestry Commission, the Environment Agency and working in partnership with non-government organisations, local authorities and land managers, DEFRA funding has supported a significant number of projects within this constituency.
	For example within the constituency there are four Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), supported by agri-environment agreements. Over the 10 year life period of these agreements nearly £4 million of agri-environment funding is being brought into the constituency to support environmental land management (Ash to Brookwood Heaths SSSI, Horsell Common SSSI, Smart’s and Prey Heaths SSSI and Basingstoke Canal SSSI). Environmental Stewardship is also supporting projects with Horsell Common Preservation Society, Surrey Wildlife Trust, Woking Council and Basingstoke Canal Trust.
	Other projects include providing improved Suitable Accessible Natural Greenspaces (SANGs) such as White Rose Lane Nature Reserve to encourage walkers away from sensitive bird nesting areas within Horsell Common (part of the Thames Basin Heaths Special Protection Area).
	The Hoe Stream Flood Alleviation Scheme: this includes the creation of three new ponds, 0.3 hectares of reedbed, three hectares of lowland meadow and created new marginal habitat along the edges of the Hoe Stream.
	The Surrey Waterbodies Project: this is a county-wide partnership project with the Surrey Wildlife Trust (including the Woking area) that provides ecological advice, habitat management and non native invasive species control by engaging with local communities/volunteers.
	The Wey Structures Project: this partnership project with Southampton university is creating decision support tools to assist with the delivery of the Water Framework Directive. The project covers the Wey from source to the Thames, including the Woking area.

Farms: Water

Neil Parish: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if his Department will take steps to make it easier for farmers and landowners to undertake their own watercourse maintenance.

Richard Benyon: We propose to use the Water Bill to bring the Environment Agency's flood defence consents and land drainage byelaws within the Environmental Permitting framework. This will reduce the administrative burden for farmers and landowners wishing to undertake low risk activities such as de-silting, which could be eligible for standard rules permits or even exempt from needing a consent.

Hedgehogs

Simon Hart: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what research his Department (a) has undertaken or (b) is aware of on the recent reduction in the hedgehog population.

Richard Benyon: The decline in the hedgehog population is well documented. The report “The State of Britain's Hedgehogs” was published in 2011 by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and the People's Trust for Endangered Species. The report, available online at:
	http://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/SOBH2011lowres.pdf
	states that there were an estimated 30 million hedgehogs in the 1950s but that this estimate had declined to approximately 1.5 million by 1995. Both organisations have conducted various other hedgehog surveys.
	Since the 1990s, the British Trust for Ornithology, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust and other organisations, have provided evidence of continued decline in hedgehog numbers and that the population may have decreased by approximately 25% over the last 10 years.
	Under the work to develop the implementation plan for Biodiversity 2020, the Government's strategy for England's wildlife and ecosystem services, Natural England has commissioned work to review all section 41 species to identify priorities for action and to determine what those actions should be. The hedgehog is being considered within this context by the Mammal Taxon Group which comprises specialist organisations, led by Natural England.

Horses: Databases

Mary Creagh: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the answer of 12 September 2012, Official Report, column 224W, on horses: databases, what further estimate he has made of the financial savings that will arise in (a) 2013-14, (b) 2014-15 and (c) 2015-16 as a result of the closure of the National Equine Database.

David Heath: The decision not to award a contract to operate a central equine database will deliver savings in the region of £200,000 per annum.

Horses: Slaughterhouses

Mary Creagh: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the results have been of testing for phenylbutazone at UK abattoirs licensed to slaughter horses in the last year for which figures are available; and at which abattoirs such tests are carried out.

Anna Soubry: I have been asked to reply 
	on behalf of the Department of Health.
	The information requested is shown in the following tables.
	
		
			 2012 samples tested for phenylbutazone 
			  Number 
			 Total number of samples collected for testing of phenylbutazone in 2012 158 
			 Number of compliant (negative) results 149 
			 Number of non-compliant (positive) results 9 
		
	
	These figures combine samples collected as part of the Veterinary Residues Statutory Survey and the Food Standards Agency Survey.
	In 2012 these samples were collected at the following abattoirs:
	
		
			 Country Establishment name Establishment number 
			 England High Peak Meat Exports Ltd 4185 
			 England Peter Boddy 2163 
			 England Stillmans (Somerset) Ltd 8231 
			 England Yorkshire Country Meats 2238 
			 Northern Ireland Oakdale 9080 
			 Note: Yorkshire Country Meats (2238) ceased processing horses in September 2012.

Horses: Slaughterhouses

Mary Creagh: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many horses were sent to slaughter at UK abattoirs in each year since 2009-10; and how many tests for phenylbutazone were carried out on such horses.

Anna Soubry: I have been asked to reply 
	on behalf of the Department of Health.
	The information requested is shown in the following table.
	
		
			  Number of horses with passports that were slaughtered in United Kingdom abattoirs in the last four years Number of samples collected Negative (compliant results) Positive (non-compliant results) 
			 2009 5,100 40 40 0 
			 2010 8,854 60 55 5 
			 2011 9,011 75 74 1 
			 2012 9,405 156 147 9

Horses: Slaughterhouses

Mary Creagh: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in which countries each of the five horse carcasses which tested positive for phenylbutazone in 2012 were by the time the test results came back; for which markets each of the five horse carcasses were intended; which national food safety authorities were contacted regarding the positive tests; and whether the Food Standards Agency has received reports on whether the meat was prevented by those national food safety authorities from entering the human food chain.

Anna Soubry: I have been asked to reply 
	on behalf of the Department of Health.
	The information requested is shown in the following table.
	
		
			  Location of horse carcase following confirmed non-compliance for phenylbutazone For which market was the carcase destined for: Which national food safety authorities were contacted? Has the Food Standards Agency (FSA) received reports on whether the carcase was prevented from entering the food chain? 
			 1 France France EC Rapid Alert system for Feed and Food (RASFF) team and the French RASFF contact point No further information received 
			 2 France France EC RASFF team and the French RASFF contact point No further information received 
			 3 France France ECRASFF team and the French RASFF contact point No further information received 
			 4 FSA currently tracing carcase 
			 5 FSA currently tracing carcase 
			 6 France France EC RASFF team and the French RASFF contact point No further information received 
			 7 France France EC RASFF team and the French RASFF contact point No further information received 
			 8 Carcase sent to two different premises within, the UK UK Local authorities (LAs) were notified for both locations: Chorley Council Kirkless Council Yes—The LA's reported that: Meat was purchased for personal consumption and had already been consumed Local Enforcement officer could not confirm the location of the meat 
			 9 UK Unknown n/a Yes—the carcase was disposed off and did not enter the human food chain

Horses: Slaughterhouses

Mary Creagh: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many horses sent to slaughter for the human food chain tested positive for presences of phenylbutazone in (a) 2009-10, (b) 2010-11 and (c) 2011-12.

Anna Soubry: I have been asked to reply 
	on behalf of the Department of Health.
	The following table provides details of the number of horses sent to slaughter for the human food chain that tested positive for presences of phenylbutazone:
	
		
			  Number of samples tested positive for the presence of phenylbutazone 
			 2009 0 
			 2010 5 
			 2011 1 
			 2012 9 
			 Note: The information recorded for 2012 includes samples tested from both the Residues Statutory Survey and the Food Standards Agency Survey.

Members: Correspondence

Gerald Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when he intends to answer the letter sent to him by the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton on 28 November 2012 with regard to Mrs M Hand.

Richard Benyon: The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for North Shropshire (Mr Paterson), replied to the right hon. Member's letter on 10 January 2013.

Members: Correspondence

Gerald Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when he intends to reply to the letter to him dated 10 December 2012 from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Ms K Fleard.

Richard Benyon: The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my right hon. Friend Member for North Shropshire (Mr Paterson), replied to the letter dated 10 December 2012 from the right hon. Member with regard to Ms K Flear on 21 January 2013.

Polar Bears: Conservation

William Bain: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what representations he has made to his EU counterparts on the EU's policy on the international trade in polar bears ahead of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species summit in March 2013.

Richard Benyon: The UK is committed to the conservation of polar bears and supports a ban on international trade in polar bear pelts and other body parts as we believe this will help to safeguard the species. DEFRA officials have been working closely with EU counterparts through meetings and electronic communication to develop a common EU position on the proposed ban on international trade in polar bears and their products.

Rural Payments Agency

Julian Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what progress has been made by his Department toward an update on reform of the Rural Payments Agency; and whether it reached its targets in 2012.

David Heath: The Rural Payments Agency is currently in year one of its Strategic Improvement Plan (SIP), a three-year plan to improve the performance of the agency and ensure that it is prepared for the changes of CAP reform. A recent Office of Government Commerce gateway review of the programme of work being carried out under the SIP endorsed the work being done and commented on the strong leadership, governance and controls that were already contributing to enhancements in RPA's operational performance.
	The RPA has met or is on track to meet all of its targets in 2012-13. This year has seen the best SPS performance in the agency's history. RPA paid 94.2% of single payment scheme claims by volume by the end of December against a target of 91%, meaning £1.443 billion paid out to English businesses in the first month of the payment window opening.

Senior Civil Servants

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many and what proportion of officials of the three most senior grades in his Department have (a) resigned, (b) taken voluntary early retirement, (c) left the Department for alternative employment, (d) been dismissed, (e) taken long-term sick leave and (f) taken administrative leave since May 2010.

Richard Benyon: The information requested for core DEFRA over the period 1 May 2010 to 22 January 2013 is given in the following table:
	
		
			 Leaving reason Number of staff Proportion of staff (percentage) 
			 Resigned (and took up alternative employment) 1 3.5 
			 Voluntary early retirement 4 14 
			 Dismissed 0 0 
			 Long-term sick leave 0 0 
			 Administrative leave 0 0 
		
	
	In addition, the following numbers of staff in the three most senior grades on DEFRA's headcount have also left core DEFRA over the same period:
	
		
			 Leaving reason Number of staff Proportion of staff (percentage) 
			 Retirement 5 17.5 
			 End of period appointment 1 3.5 
			 Transfer to other Govt Dept 6 21.1 
			 Machinery of Government change 1 3.5 
		
	
	One person retired and three people ended their period of secondment or loan who were not on DEFRA's payroll.

Trees

Barry Gardiner: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 
	(1)  how many tonnes of carbon dioxide are sequestered in ash trees in the UK;
	(2)  what modelling his Department has carried out of the release of carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere as a result of ash dieback from Chalara fraxinea.

David Heath: The quantity of carbon stored in ash trees in woodlands over 0.5 hectares has been calculated as 45 MtCO2e (12 million tonnes of carbon) from information collected through the National Forest Inventory. On an annual basis, it has been estimated that these trees remove 0.5 million tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere.
	Neither the Department of Energy and Climate Change nor DEFRA have undertaken any modelling work on the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as a result of ash dieback. It is our policy at present not to fell infected mature trees.

Trees: Urban Areas

Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what progress his Department is making in encouraging the planting of trees in towns and cities; and if he will make a statement.

David Heath: The Big Tree Plant, launched in 2010, is a coalition Government commitment to plant 1 million new trees throughout England by 2015. The campaign encourages and supports community groups to plant trees in neighbourhoods where people live and work. It helps improve the quality of life of those living in England's towns, cities and residential areas by making neighbourhoods more attractive, healthy places to live, especially in areas of greatest deprivation or where there is little greenery.
	The campaign is a partnership bringing together national tree-planting organisations and local groups working with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Forestry Commission, with the Forestry Commission providing £4.0 million of grant funding.
	To date, the campaign has seen over 239,000 trees planted across the country with £3.4 million of the £4.0 million funding already allocated to 128 groups who will be planting over 813,000 trees by 2015. 8,000 of these will be street trees and over £7.0 million of match funding has been identified by applicants so far.
	In addition, the Forestry Commission is providing technical support for the London Mayor's Street Tree programme. The previous programme saw the planting of 10,000 new trees and the current programme aims to plant a further 10,000 new trees across the capital by March 2015.

UK Membership of EU

Yvonne Fovargue: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what contingency plans his Department (a) has made, (b) is making and (c) plans to make for UK withdrawal from the EU; whether those plans will be published; and what estimate he has made of the likely cost of implementing those plans.

Richard Benyon: DEFRA has not made any plans for the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.

HEALTH

Blood Diseases: Drugs

Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what assessment he has made of the (a) clinical effects and (b) cost effectiveness of prescribing dabigatran and revaroxaban rather than warfarin; and if he will make a statement;
	(2)  whether he has received representations from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence on (a) dabigatran and (b) revaroxaban; and if he will make a statement.

Norman Lamb: The Department has made no such assessment.
	Dabigatran etexilate (Pradaxa) and rivaroxaban (Xarelto) both hold European marketing authorisations. Dabigatran etexilate is indicated for the prevention of the formation of blood clots in the veins in adults who have had an operation to replace a hip or knee, and to prevent strokes and the formation of clots in adults with non-valvular atrial fibrillation who are considered to be at risk of stroke. Rivaroxaban is indicated for the prevention of venous thromboembolism in patients who are undergoing surgery to replace a hip or knee; the prevention of stroke caused by a blood clot in the brain and systemic embolism in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation; to treat deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism following a severe case of DVT; and to prevent DVT reoccurring.
	The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has issued technology appraisal (TA) guidance to the national health service on the use of dabigatran etexilate and rivaroxaban for a number of indications. Details of NICE'S guidance are shown in the table.
	
		
			 TA number Drug and indication Publication date 
			 TA157 Dabigatran etexilate for the prevention of venous thromboembolism after hip or knee replacement surgery in adults September 2008 
			 TA170 Rivaroxaban for the prevention of venous thromboembolism after total hip or total knee replacement in adults April 2009 
			 TA249 Dabigatran etexilate for the prevention of stroke and systemic embolism in atrial fibrillation March 2012 
			 TA256 Rivaroxaban for the prevention of stroke and systemic embolism in people with atrial fibrillation May 2012 
			 TA261 Rivaroxaban for the treatment of deep vein thrombosis and prevention of recurrent deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism July 2012 
		
	
	Other than those representations received in the Department's capacity as a stakeholder in appraisals, we have not received any representations from NICE on these drugs.

Continuing Care

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether his Department has any plans to incentivise hospitals to carry out the multi-disciplinary care required to treat (a) diabetes and (b) other complex long-term conditions.

Anna Soubry: There will be a range of payment mechanisms in place to support multi-disciplinary care in hospital for people with long-term conditions.
	In diabetes, from April 2013 there will be a best practice tariff for the management of diabetic ketoacidosis, which will ensure care is provided by members of the multi-professional team.
	The national health service also has access to a range of CQUIN (clinical commissioning for quality and innovation) payments, which are set at both a local or nation level, and can be used to incentivise multi-disciplinary work.

Diabetes: Brigg

Andrew Percy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department has taken to support the prevention of Type 2 diabetes in Brigg and Goole constituency.

Anna Soubry: Type 2 diabetes is closely linked to lifestyle factors such as being overweight and physical inactivity. The Government are committed to tackling excess weight and obesity, and have published ‘Healthy Lives, Health People: A call to action on obesity in England’ which sets out our commitment to key programmes such as Change4Life, and the NHS Health Check. A copy has already been placed in the Library.
	The Government have recently launched the Change4Life Be Food Smart campaign to give people information about the foods they eat, and help them make healthier choices.
	The Government are also continuing to fund and support the full rollout of the NHS Health Check programme, which includes assessing the risk of diabetes for people aged 40 to 74 and supporting them in managing or reducing that risk. From April this year the NHS Health Check programme will be mandated to local authorities to secure local delivery of the risk assessment element of the programme. Economic modelling has shown the potential for the programme to prevent over 4,000 people a year from developing diabetes and to detect over 20,000 cases of diabetes and kidney disease earlier.
	North Lincolnshire's clinical commissioning group has a number of dedicated services relating to Type 2 diabetes. There is primary care detection screening for patients at risk of diabetes. These patients are then offered lifestyle advice and can be put in touch with Health Trainers and other services aimed at helping people lead a healthier life.

Fertility: Health Services

Andrew Griffiths: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  pursuant to the answer of 15 January 2013, Official Report, column 704, on in vitro fertilisation (IVF), what steps he is taking to implement a central monitoring system for measuring local variations in IVF provision;
	(2)  what steps his Department is taking to ensure that levels of provision are not reduced as a result of the transferring of local contracts for tertiary infertility services from April 2013;
	(3)  what steps (a) his Department and (b) the NHS Commissioning Board have taken since April 2012 to prepare clinical commissioning groups for the responsibility of commissioning tertiary infertility services.

Anna Soubry: Commissioning decisions made by clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) will be underpinned by clinical insight and knowledge of local healthcare needs. This will enable CCGs to work closely with secondary care, other health and care professionals and with community partners to design joined up services that make sense to patients and the public.
	We will continue to expect that those involved in commissioning infertility treatment services are fully aware of the importance of having regard to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) fertility guidelines. The NHS Commissioning Board (NHS CB) has stated its intention to communicate with CCGs on this subject and provide some supportive commissioning resources, following publication of the revised NICE guideline. The NHS CB will have general intervention powers in relation to CCGs, should it be satisfied that a CCG is failing or has failed to discharge any of its functions, or there is a significant risk that it will fail to do so.

Health

Nick Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the cost to local authorities of their assuming new public health responsibilities.

Anna Soubry: In 2012-13 an estimated £2.52 billion is being spent on public health services which will become the responsibility of local authorities from April 2013. Each local authority is receiving a real terms increase in both 2013-14 and 2014-15 over the 2012-13 baseline spend in their area, making the total amount allocated for those years £2.66 billion and £2.79 billion respectively.
	The Department collected 2010-11 spend on public health from each primary care trust (PCT), which was uplifted to 2012-13 prices. The results of the collection were published and each PCT, working with their local authority, had the opportunity to submit amendments. In addition, a validation exercise was carried out comparing each PCTs 2010-11 spend with more aggregate information on PCTs' 2011-12 spend and 2012-13 planned spend.
	Local authorities will, subject to Parliament, be required to carry out a small number of mandatory public health functions. The Department tested that for each local authority their 2013-14 grant is significantly more than the cost of mandated services. Local authorities will be free to use the rest of the grant to address local priorities, subject to complying with a limited number of conditions attached to the grant.

Heart Diseases

Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what the (a) detection rates and (b) rates of patients fully treated are for atrial fibrillation; and what steps he is taking to improve identification and treatment;
	(2)  what assessment he has made of the care given to people with atrial fibrillation in (a) Huddersfield and (b) England; and if he will make a statement.

Anna Soubry: Data on incidence of atrial fibrillation (AF) are not collected centrally. However, data on the prevalence of AF are collected via the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF). These data are shown in the following table. Data for Kirklees primary care trust (PCT) have been provided as it covers Huddersfield.
	
		
			 QOF AF prevalence 
			 Percentage 
			  2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 
			 England 1.3 1.3 1.3 1.4 1.4 1.5 
			 Kirklees PCT 1.1 1.1 1.2 1.2 1.2 1.3 
		
	
	Data on the use of treatments for AF are not centrally collected. However, data on the percentage of patients with AF who receive either an oral anticoagulant or aspirin to manage their risk of stroke are collected via the QOF AF3 indicator.
	
		
			 Score on AF3, 2011-12 
			  Percentage 
			 England 93.7 
			 Kirklees PCT 93.8 
		
	
	Better detection and treatment of AF is being considered as part of the development of the Cardiovascular Disease Outcomes Strategy, which is due to be published by the end of March 2013.
	NHS Improvement is working with the national health service to roll out the Guidance on Risk Assessment and Stroke Prevention in AF (GRASP-AF) tool to help ensure that those patients diagnosed with atrial fibrillation are receiving appropriate treatment. So far, 2,276 general practitioner practices (28% of practices in England) have used the GRASP-AF tool.

Medicine: Graduates

Caroline Dinenage: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to address the number of medical students who face unemployment upon graduation.

Daniel Poulter: We are committed to ensuring that all medical school graduates in the United Kingdom receive a place on a foundation training programme in 2013. Recruitment to the Foundation Programme is UK-wide and consequently is the responsibility of the four UK Health Departments. We are in the process of planning, with Health Education England and the other UK Health Departments, additional posts should they be required.

Mental Health Services: Children

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of children with a mental illness are using services for (a) an emotional disorder, (b) a conduct disorder, (c) a hyperkinetic disorder and (d) any other disorder.

Norman Lamb: This information is not collected centrally.

Mental Illness: Children

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of children with a mental disorder are defined under the ACORN classifications as (a) thriving, (b) expanding, (c) rising, (d) settling, (e) aspiring and (f) striving.

Norman Lamb: That information is not held centrally.

NHS: Finance

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health with reference to his announcement of a £140 million fund for nurses and midwives to improve care in October 2012, what plans he has made to implement (a) the specific funding for nurses and midwives to spend on new technology and (b) other funding; and if he will make a statement.

Daniel Poulter: In October 2012 the Government announced the establishment of a £100 million technology fund (capital) to help equip nurses and midwives with latest technologies designed to help them to provide safer, more effective and more efficient care to patients and service users. All national health service providers, whether hospital or community based, will be able to bid for a loan from the fund. Repayment of the loan may be waived if they can show demonstrable impact on patient care through the Friends and Family Test (FFT) or another patient experience measure (if they are not mandated to use the FFT).
	The fund will be available during 2013-14 and 2014-15. Following further consultation with internal and external stakeholders, further details on the roll-out of the fund will be released at the start of the new financial year.
	The Government has also invested £40 million in the next two financial years (2013-14 and 2014-15) to support nurses, midwives and those working in the care sector to develop themselves as leaders in care. This investment (delivered via the NHS Leadership Academy) will help nurses and midwives develop leadership skills to improve patient care and the patient experience. Its aim is to help change the nature of leadership by shaping a culture that is supportive of compassionate care

Nurses: Training

Stephen McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many training posts for nurses were commissioned in (a) the City of Birmingham, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

Daniel Poulter: The Department does not collect figures on nursing commissions at a city level. However, the number of training places commissioned for nursing at strategic health authority and national level is collected.
	Strategic health authorities are responsible for commissioning nursing training places.
	The following table shows the number of actual commissions for nursing in the West Midlands in the last five years and the planned nursing commissions for 2012-13.
	
		
			 Nursing commissions in the West Midlands 2007-08 to 2012-13 
			  Number 
			 2007-08 2,402 
			 2008-09 2,606 
			 2009-10 2,612 
			 2010-11 2,521 
			 2011-12 2,073 
			 2012-13 (Plan) 2,102 
		
	
	The following table shows the number of actual commissions for nursing nationally in the last five years and the planned nursing commissions for 2012-13.
	
		
			 National nursing commissions 2007-08 to 2012-13 
			  Number 
			 2007-08 19,352 
			 2008-09 20,663 
			 2009-10 20,829 
			 2010-11 20,092 
			 2011-12 17,741 
			 2012-13 (Plan) 17,546 
			 Source: Multi-professional education and training monitoring returns 
		
	
	The actual number of training commissions for nurses in 2012-13 will not be available until May 2013.

Obesity: Children

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of eleven year olds in each primary care trust area have been classified as obese in each year since 2003.

Anna Soubry: This information is not available in the format requested.
	Data on the prevalence of obese children by primary care trust are available from the Health and Social Care information centre National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP): England. However, this information is only available for children in year 6 (10 to 11 years old) for the school years 2006-07 to 2011-12. This information is available on the NHS information centre website at:
	www.ic.nhs.uk/searchcatalogue?productid=101358ttopics=0%2fPublic+ health&sort=Relevance&size=10&page=l#top
	Information showing the prevalence of children (aged two to 15) who are obese is available in Table 4 of the Child Trend tables from ‘Health Survey for England—2011 trend tables’.
	Information is available for children aged 11 to 15 and two to 15 in England; for each year from 1995 to 2011. This information is available at:
	www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/hse11trendtables
	This information has already been placed in the Library.

Radiotherapy

Tessa Munt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 22 January 2013, Official Report, column 213W, on radiotherapy, 
	(1)  how much of the £300 million fund has been spent on (a) new cardiac devices and (b) new radiotherapy equipment; who manufactured the new radiotherapy equipment purchases from the fund; and which hospitals have acquired new radiotherapy equipment purchased from this fund;
	(2)  what administration costs will be charged by the NHS Supply Chain to manage the £300 million fund; and what procurement execution costs will be applied by the NHS Supply Chain for each item supplied from the fund.

Daniel Poulter: £28.35 million (including VAT) of the £300 million has been invested in radiotherapy equipment deals which represents 20 Linacs. There has been no expenditure to date on new cardiac devices.
	The suppliers Elekta and Varian have bought 10 Linacs each. National health service trusts have bought 12 of these via NHS Supply Chain to date. The distribution is shown in the following table.
	
		
			 Trust Model Quantity Supplier 
			 Bristol and Weston Purchasing Consortium—University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust Synergy 2 Elekta 
			 Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Synergy 2 Elekta 
			 Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology NHS Foundation Trust Truebeam 1 Varian 
			 Wye Valley NHS Trust Truebeam 1 Varian 
			 Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Truebeam 1 Varian 
			 The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Truebeam 2 Varian 
			 Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust Truebeam 1 Varian 
			 Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Truebeam 2 Varian 
		
	
	In response to the findings of the Public Accounts Committee, the £300 million Capital Fund operates an agreed and governed savings share formula that incentivizes NHS Supply Chain to negotiate commercial terms with equipment providers that aggregates NHS trust demand. This drives maximum NHS savings against historical prices and terms that individual NHS trusts could achieve for their single requirements. The majority of the saving is passed onto the NHS trust. NHS Supply Chain are also entitled to a percentage of the discounted price varying according to the modality of equipment, which is between 1% and 3%.

Social Services

Nick Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many and what proportion of adults are receiving social care in (a) Newcastle and (b) Wokingham.

Norman Lamb: Data on the number of adults (aged 18 and over) receiving social care are collected and published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre.
	Table 1 shows the number and proportion of adults aged 18 and over, who received social care in the period 1 April to 31 March 2011-12, in Newcastle and Wokingham.
	
		
			 Table 1: Number and proportion of adults aged 18 and over receiving social care in the period 1 April to 31 March 2011-12 (provisional) 
			  Number Proportion of adults(1) (percentage) 
			 Newcastle 9,150 0.6 
			 Wokingham 2,550 0.2 
			 England total 1,464,195 — 
			 (1) The figures are a proportion of the England total number of adult receiving services. Source: RAP P1 
		
	
	Final data for the period 1 April to 31 March 2012 are pre-announced for publication on 15 February 2013 in ‘Community Care Statistics: Social Services Activity, England—2011-12’. The data will be made available through our National Adult Social Care Intelligence Service (NASCIS) online analytical processor. NASCIS provides a set of analytical, query and reporting tools which can be accessed from:
	http://nascis.ic.nhs.uk

HOME DEPARTMENT

Alcoholic Drinks: Prices

Peter Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when and how the Government decided to introduce minimum pricing for alcohol; what the objectives of that policy are; how beneficial change attributable to that policy will be measured; and what baseline figures will be used to measure that change.

Jeremy Browne: In March 2012, the Government set out in the Alcohol Strategy a commitment to introduce a minimum unit price for alcohol. On 28 November, the Government launched a consultation on key policies within the Alcohol Strategy. The consultation on a minimum unit price is ongoing. We will listen to all views and set out a response in due course.
	The objective of the policy is to reduce alcohol-related crime and health harms by reducing excessive alcohol consumption, particularly by the most hazardous and harmful drinkers who tend to show a preference for the cheapest alcohol products.
	The expected benefits are set out in the published consultation impact assessment, and will be measured by a reduction in the harms associated with excessive consumption, especially the numbers of hospital admissions, alcohol-related deaths and alcohol-related crimes. The actual impact will depend on the price per unit of alcohol that will be determined after the consultation.
	The baseline figures used to measure this change will be the most recent available figures for the period before the date of implementation.

Databases: Telecommunications

David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much her Department has spent on the communications capabilities development programme since its inception.

James Brokenshire: holding answer 10 December 2012
	The Office of Security and Counter Terrorism has spent £405 million since May 2010 on the communications capabilities development programme under the current Government which is based on the premise that there will be collaborative relations with communications services providers who will be expected to retain relevant communications data. These costs comprise expenditure under the Communications Capabilities Directorate, and the communications capabilities development programme and include forecast 2012-13 figures. The Home Office led programme includes expenditure under the Data Retention (EC Directive) Regulations, developing new tools to assist law enforcement, and training for investigators.

Disclosure of Information

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on how many occasions her Department has declined to provide information under the Data Protection Act 1998 in each year since 2002.

James Brokenshire: The information is not held.

Licensing Laws

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans she has to introduce full-cost recovery in respect of alcohol licensing; and what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government on that matter.

Jeremy Browne: holding answer 25 January 2013
	The Government have introduced, through the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011, a power for the Secretary of State to prescribe by regulations that alcohol licensing fees be set locally on a cost-recovery basis. We intend to introduce regulations in the summer of 2013, after consulting on the fees proposals. Home Office Ministers frequently meet Ministers from other Government Departments as part of the process of policy development and delivery. As was the case with previous Administrations, it is not the Government's practice to provide details of all such meetings.

Olympic Games 2012: Touting

Sharon Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department 
	(1)  if she will place in the Library a copy of the reports prepared for her Department by Operation Podium on ticket fraud and the secondary ticketing market;
	(2)  when (a) she, (b) Ministers in her Department and (c) officials in her Department have met officers from Operation Podium to discuss the issue of ticket fraud and the secondary ticketing market since the start of that operation; and what the outcome has been of any such meeting.

James Brokenshire: A range of assessments of threats to the Olympic and Paralympic Games were provided to the Government to inform the Olympic security strategy and its successful delivery. This included reporting from the Operation Podium team in the Metropolitan police, and from other police forces and law enforcement agencies, regarding serious and organised crime. These reports contain sensitive information which cannot be published, even though the Games are over. I am unable, therefore, to place the reports in the House Library.
	Home Office Ministers and officials met regularly with senior members of the Metropolitan police over several years running up to the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and daily during the Games themselves. The Home Office funded and supported the work undertaken by Operation Podium, which undertook preventative and investigative work to stop criminals illegally profiting from the Games.
	Home Office officials have remained in contact with the Operation Podium team to ensure that the lessons learned from securing this major event can be applied to other events in the future.

Pay

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many officials in her Department and its agencies have been paid in excess of £100,000 per annum in each of the last three years.

James Brokenshire: I refer my hon. Friend to the replies I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Esher and Walton (Mr Raab) on 12 December 2012, Official Report, column 349W and 19 December 2012, Official Report, column 778W.

Procurement

Julian Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of procurement contracts offered by her Department has been advertised on the Contracts Finder website since that website's inception.

James Brokenshire: Home Department policy is that all procurements over £10,000 should be uploaded onto the Contracts Finder website. Since the inception of the Contracts Finder website, the Home Department and its agencies have published all 183 contracts that were eligible for publication.178 contracts have been ineligible for publication.
	The Home Department does not currently hold the information for contracts with a value under £10,000 centrally and it could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. As such, the Home Office is unable to provide the overall proportion of procurement contracts offered that have been advertised on Contracts Finder.

Senior Civil Servants

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many and what proportion of officials of the three most senior grades in her Department have (a) resigned, (b) taken voluntary early retirement, (c) left the Department for alternative employment, (d) been dismissed, (e) taken long-term sick leave and (f) taken administrative leave since May 2010.

James Brokenshire: The number of officials in the three most senior grades in the Department has fluctuated in the period since May 2010. We cannot therefore provide the information requested as a proportion of all officials of these grades.
	(a) Five officials in these grades have resigned since May 2010.
	(b) 12 officials in these grades have taken voluntary early exit since May 2010.
	(c) The Department does not record what people intend to do when they leave us.
	We cannot therefore provide full details of the number of officials who have left for alternative employment during this period. However, 11 officials in these grades transferred to other Government Departments during this period.
	(d) No officials in these grades have been dismissed during this period.
	(e) Fewer than five officials in these grades have taken long-term sick leave since May 2010.
	(f) This is not a term used in the Department.

UK Membership of EU

Heidi Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what contingency plans her Department (a) has made, (b) is making and (c) plans to make for UK withdrawal from the EU; whether those plans will be published; and what estimate she has made of the likely cost of implementing those plans.

James Brokenshire: holding answer 29 January 2013
	The Department has not made any plans for the UK's withdrawal from the EU.

Young Offenders

Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department 
	(1)  how many people under the age of 18 were charged with an offence in each year from 1997 to 2012;
	(2)  how many people aged under 18 years old were charged with an offence in each year from 1997 to 2012 by type of offence;
	(3)  how many people aged (a) 17, (b) 16, (c) 15, (d) 14, (e) 13, (f) 12, (g) 11 and (h) 10 were charged with an offence in each year from 1997 to 2012;
	(4)  how many people in the Metropolitan police area aged (a) 17, (b) 16, (c) 15, (d) 14, (e) 13, (f) 12, (g) 11 and (h) 10 were charged with an offence in each year from 1997 to 2012;
	(5)  how many people in the Metropolitan police area charged with an offence in each year from 1997 to 2012 were aged (a) 17, (b) 16, (c) 15, (d) 14, (e) 13, (f) 12, (g) 11 and (h) 10.

Jeremy Wright: I have been asked to reply 
	on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.
	Charging data are not collected by the Ministry of Justice.

Young Offenders: Greater London

Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department 
	(1)  how many people aged under 18 in the Metropolitan police area were (a) arrested for and (b) charged with an offence in each year from 1997 to 2012;
	(2)  what the offences committed were which led to the (a) arrest and (b) charging of people aged under 18 in the Metropolitan police area in each year from 1997 to 2012.

Damian Green: Police forces have been required to submit arrests data to the Home Office since 1999-2000. However, a breakdown showing police force area and age of persons arrested is only available from 2000-01. Police forces are asked to supply the Home Office with arrests data according to offence groupings, for example ‘violence against the person’ and ‘criminal damage’. It is not, therefore, possible to provide data according to specific offences.
	Available data relate to the number of persons aged under 18 arrested by the Metropolitan Police Service in the years 2000-01 to 2010-11, broken down by offence grouping, and are given in the following table. Data for 2011-12 are scheduled to be published in the spring of 2013.
	The Ministry of Justice has advised that data on persons charged are not collected centrally.
	
		
			 Number of persons aged under 18 arrested for recorded crime (notifiable offences) by offence group: Metropolitan Police Service, 2000-01 to 2010-11 
			 Offence group 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 
			 Violence against the person 5,713 5,095 4,842 5,409 6,435 7,808 8,631 8,466 8,533 8,876 7,711 
			 Sexual offences 599 718 757 671 689 681 653 709 821 867 861 
			 Robbery 5,686 5,931 4,983 5,687 6,138 7,499 9,538 7,528 6,144 6,052 6,897 
			 Burglary 3,678 3,053 3,170 3,330 3,425 3,538 3,887 3,415 3,212 3,021 2,769 
			 Theft and handling stolen goods 16,492 15,380 12,667 12,675 11,594 11,994 13,524 11,458 9,933 9,718 8,427 
			 Fraud and forgery 786 804 696 688 679 510 501 446 531 378 320 
			 Criminal damage 5,110 4,477 3,691 4,363 4,918 5,287 6,078 4,831 3,824 3,159 2,835 
			 Drug offences 3,288 3,309 3,915 3,442 2,747 3,187 3,235 4,117 4,465 4,602 4,541 
			 Other offences 2,549 2,454 2,673 3,032 3,449 3,079 4,391 4,666 4,919 5,805 7,708 
		
	
	
		
			 Total 43,901 41,221 37,394 39,297 40,074 43,583 50,438 45,636 42,382 42,478 42,069

HOUSE OF COMMONS COMMISSION

Prime Minister’s Question Time

David Winnick: To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, representing the House of Commons Commission, which hon. Members have been drawn from the ballot for oral questions to the Prime Minister on more than five occasions since May 2010.

John Thurso: 78 hon. Members were successful in the shuffle for Prime Minister's questions on five, or more occasions between May 2010 and 30 January 2013, as follows:
	
		
			  Occasions 
			 Mr Philip Hollobone 12 
			 Lindsay Roy 12 
			 Tom Blenkinsop 9 
			 Tony Lloyd 9 
			 Tony Baldry 8 
			 Luciana Berger 8 
			 Michael Connarty 8 
			 Nic Dakin 8 
			 Caroline Dinenage 8 
			 Sheila Gilmore 8 
			 Julie Hilling 8 
			 Dr William McCrea 8 
			 Mr Angus Brendan MacNeil 8 
			 Ian Austin 7 
			 Gavin Barwell 7 
			 Chris Bryant 7 
			 Mr James Clappison 7 
			 Oliver Colvile 7 
			 Dr Julian Huppert 7 
			 Ian Lucas 7 
			 Jason McCartney 7 
			 Grahame M Morris 7 
			 Andrew Stephenson 7 
			 John Woodcock 7 
			 Nigel Adams 6 
			 Peter Aldous 6 
			 Sir Alan Beith 6 
			 Kevin Brennan 6 
			 Mr Russell Brown 6 
			 Fiona Bruce 6 
			 Jim Dobbin 6 
			 Mr Brian H Donohoe 6 
			 Lilian Greenwood 6 
			 Robert Halfon 6 
			 Margot James 6 
			 Jeremy Lefroy 6 
			 Dr Julian Lewis 6 
			 Gregg McClymont 6 
			 John Mann 6 
			 Sir Alan Meale 6 
			 Priti Patel 6 
			 Mark Pawsey 6 
			 Jim Shannon 6 
			 David Simpson 6 
			 Julian Sturdy 6 
			 Valerie Vaz 6 
			 Nadhim Zahawi 6 
			 Andrew Bingham 5 
			 Mr Peter Bone 5 
			 Annette Brooke 5 
			 Mr David Burrowes 5 
			 Mr Gregory Campbell 5 
			 Mr Ronnie Campbell 5 
			 Neil Carmichael 5 
			 Mr Douglas Carswell 5 
			 Alex Cunningham 5 
			 Mr Jim Cunningham 5 
			 Jackie Doyle-Price 5 
			 Robert Flello 5 
			 John Glen 5 
			 Mrs Mary Glindon 5 
			 Tom Greatrex 5 
			 Simon Hart 5 
			 Mark Hendrick 5 
			 Kelvin Hopkins 5 
			 Sajid Javid 5 
			 Helen Jones 5 
			 Mark Lancaster 5 
			 Karen Lumley 5 
			 Eric Ollerenshaw 5 
			 John Robertson 5 
			 Andrew Selous 5 
			 Mr Dennis Skinner 5 
			 Angela Smith 5 
			 Nick Smith 5 
			 Mr Gary Streeter 5 
			 Graham Stringer 5 
			 Roger Williams 5

TRANSPORT

High Speed 2 Railway Line

Frank Dobson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what proportion of the estimated £1.3 billion purchase and compensation costs of the HS2 project relates to the area around Euston station.

Simon Burns: The £1.3 billion figure represents a modelling output that may be taken as a broad guide to the net cost of the property compensation schemes set out in the current consultation documents. It would be misleading to attempt to disaggregate this figure further, because in practice there may be a wide range of outcomes, depending on the final form of property compensation schemes, the number of property owners who seek compensation, the circumstances of the properties which the Government might purchase, and future local property market trends.

High Speed 2 Railway Line

Frank Dobson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what estimate he has made of the additional cost of extending the HS2 purchase and compensation regime outside the M25 to the area inside the M25.

Simon Burns: The Government believe that it would be contrary to the public interest to release details of our modelling as to the additional cost of extending the HS2 purchase and compensation regime outside the M25 to the area inside the M25. This is because such details are likely to be misrepresented and to mislead prospective property buyers about the future value of properties near the HS2 route. This would risk undermining local property markets and creating unnecessary property blight.

High Speed 2 Railway Line

Zac Goldsmith: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport for what reasons the proposals for the Heathrow High Speed 2 spur and station are not currently planned to be part of the High Speed 2 phase two consultation.

Simon Burns: As stated in January 2012, the Government believe the HS2 network should link to Heathrow and our preferred option is for this to be built as part of phase two. However, the Government have since established an independent Airports Commission to recommend options for maintaining the country's status as an international aviation hub. We have therefore taken the decision to pause work on the spur to Heathrow until after 2015 when we expect the Airports Commission to publish its final report.

Procurement

Julian Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what proportion of procurement contracts offered by his Department has been advertised on the Contracts Finder website since that website's inception.

Norman Baker: The Department for Transport has advertised 144 of 646 (22%) of its procurement contracts on the Contracts Finder website since its inception.
	I am aware that my hon. Friend asked the same question in July 2011. Subsequent to giving the answer on 19 July 2011 [Official Report, Column 949W] of 56%, more information has become available, which accounts for the change in percentage. Had this information come to light at an early time, the answer would have been 26%.

Roads: Horses

Alun Cairns: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment his Department has made of incidents with ponies and horses on roads (a) across the Vale of Glamorgan and (b) in the UK; and what information he has on any incidents involving horses that have occurred in each of the last five years in the (i) Vale of Glamorgan and (ii) UK.

Stephen Hammond: The Department collects information relating to reported personal injury accidents involving a ridden horse. Accidents including a vehicle and an unridden horse where there is a casualty are recorded as a vehicle hitting an animal. However, as the record will not specify that the animal is a horse in this case, it is not possible to identify the number of accidents involving an unridden horse. The information held does not include damage only accidents, or accidents resulting in injury to a ridden horse only.
	The Department only holds information relating to Great Britain.
	In each of the last five years in the Vale of Glamorgan parliamentary constituency there were no accidents involving ridden horses. In Great Britain in each of the last five years, there were the following numbers of accidents involving at least one ridden horse:
	
		
			  Accidents involving a ridden horse 
			 2007 133 
			 2008 109 
			 2009 102 
			 2010 126 
			 2011 135 
		
	
	The resulting casualties from these accidents were as follows:
	
		
			  2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 
			 Total casualties 159 139 114 156 163 
			 Of which:      
			 Horse riders 127 106 100 126 133 
		
	
	Statistics for the year 2012 will be available in June 2013.

Southern

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what discussions (a) he and (b) officials in his Department have had with Go-Ahead Group plc concerning revenue support to Southern; and what estimate he has made of the proportion of such support that the franchise will require.

Simon Burns: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Transport has had no discussions with Go-Ahead Group plc concerning Revenue Support to Southern.
	Southern and Go-Ahead Group have advised my officials that they expect to require revenue support at the 80% level when they become eligible in September 2013.
	Southern is a premium paying operator and does not receive subsidy from the Government. If eligible for revenue support we still expect Southern to make net payments for operating the franchise.

Travel: Young People

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport pursuant to the answer of 5 December 2012, Official Report, column 815W, on travel: young people, when he expects to respond to the recommendations of the British Youth Council Transport Select Committee report, Transport and Young People, published on 5 November 2012.

Norman Baker: The Government response was sent to the British Youth Council on 29 January 2013.

TREASURY

Bank of England

John Mann: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the involvement of women in the decision-making bodies of the Bank of England.

Greg Clark: The Government are committed to appointing serious, knowledgeable and experienced candidates with the appropriate qualifications and skills to sit on the Bank of England's decision-making bodies.
	Appointments should be made on merit. Diversity is always an important consideration when appointing external members of the Monetary Policy Committee and Financial Policy Committee, and when recommending appointees to the Court of Directors. This includes career and training background, as well as ethnicity and gender.
	The Government will continue to encourage women to apply for vacancies.

Credit Unions: Northern Ireland

Vernon Coaker: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the effects of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 on credit unions in Northern Ireland; and if he will make a statement.

Greg Clark: Credit unions were bought under FSMA 2000 regulation on March 31 2012, with the transfer of regulation to the FSA. This means that depositors in Northern Ireland credit unions are now protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme in the same way as depositors in the rest of the UK.

Double Taxation: Brazil

Iain Wright: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps he is taking to conclude a double taxation agreement with Brazil; and if he will make a statement.

David Gauke: Officials have discussed prospects for a comprehensive double taxation agreement with their Brazilian counterparts on several occasions, most recently in November 2012. However, owing to important differences in approach between the two countries, prospects of concluding an agreement that would be of benefit to UK business appear at the moment to be remote. In their contacts with the Brazilian Government, Ministers and officials nevertheless continue to highlight the value of a double taxation agreement based on the principles set out in the OECD model agreement.

Financial Services

Guto Bebb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
	(1)  what recent discussions he has had with the Financial Services Authority on the timetabling of the pilot phase of the interest rate hedging product mis-selling redress scheme;
	(2)  what recent discussions he has had with the Financial Services Authority on its report on the pilot phase of the interest rate hedging product mis-selling redress scheme;
	(3)  what steps he is taking to support small and medium-sized businesses in seeking redress for mis-sold interest rate hedging products.

Greg Clark: The FSA announced the findings of the pilot phase of the interest rate hedging product mis-selling redress scheme today.
	The Government welcomes the FSA’s announcement that the full review process into the mis-selling of interest rate swaps will now begin.

Financial Services: Taxation

George Galloway: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will introduce a financial transactions tax.

Greg Clark: The Government are not against financial transaction taxes in principle, but believe that they should only be contemplated at a global level, due to concerns over the risks of relocation of economic activity and to competitiveness that a regional financial transaction tax would imply.
	We have also been clear that the UK will not participate in the European Commission's proposals for a financial transaction tax because, as the Commission's own impact analysis concludes, their central estimate is that it would reduce EU GDP by 1.7%, equivalent to €216 billion, driven by an increase in the cost of capital for business, and see the relocation of between 70 and 90% of some markets away from the EU.

Financial Services: Taxation

George Galloway: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of how much a financial transactions tax of 0.01 per cent would generate for the Exchequer.

Greg Clark: Although the Government are not against financial transaction taxes in principle, we believe these should only be contemplated at a global level, due to concerns over the risks of relocation of economic activity and to competitiveness that a regional financial transaction tax would imply.
	Following international discussions, it has become clear that consensus for a global FTT does not currently exist.
	We have therefore not made an assessment of what a domestic financial transaction tax of 0.01% would generate for the Exchequer. Any assessment of the revenue impact would also need to take account of several factors likely to reduce Exchequer yield, including reductions in corporation tax receipts from the sector and reduction in tax revenues as a whole due to the negative growth impacts of the tax.
	We have also been clear that the UK will not participate in the European Commission's proposals for a financial transaction tax because, as the Commission's own impact analysis concludes, their central estimate is that it would reduce EU GDP by 1.76%, equivalent to €216 billion, driven by an increase in the cost of capital for business, and see the relocation of between 70 and 90% of some markets away from the EU.

High Speed 2 Railway Line

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what representations he has received from the Welsh Government on the Barnett consequentials resulting from Government expenditure on HS2.

Danny Alexander: Representations have not been received from the Welsh Government on the Barnett consequentials resulting from Government expenditure on HS2 at this time. Barnett consequentials will be determined once the detailed budgeting and funding arrangements have been decided.

Insurance Premium Tax

Priti Patel: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will reassess his Department's estimate of the costs to motorists of the changes to insurance premiums contained in the Equality Act 2010 (Amendment) Regulations 2012 in respect of gender sensitive pricing in the light of recent experience of actual changes in premiums.

Sajid Javid: The Government were disappointed with the European Court of Justice ruling that prohibited the use of gender in the pricing of insurance policies and anticipated that it would have a largely negative impact on consumers. The Government's Impact Assessment, published in December 2011, set out our assumption that the judgment would result in an initial net increase in the cost of premiums. As the market adjusts, the effect of competition is expected to help drive premiums down but overall we expect that the market will stabilise with premiums at a higher level overall than they were before. Government have been working with industry and the Financial Services Authority to mitigate as far as possible the negative impacts of the judgment. We will also continue to work with all relevant parties to understand the future pricing impacts.

LIBOR

Clive Efford: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
	(1)  what estimate he has made of the cost to the Exchequer of the manipulation of LIBOR on interest rates paid from public finances; and if he will make a statement;
	(2)  what assessment he has made of the effect on interest rates paid from public funds for capital projects financed under the private finance initiative as a consequence of the manipulation of LIBOR; and if he will make a statement;
	(3)  whether he is considering taking legal action to recoup any public money lost to banks in higher interest rates charged for schemes financed under the private finance initiative as a consequence of the manipulation of LIBOR; and if he will make a statement.

Greg Clark: To date, the FSA has fined three banks for breaching its principles for business in regard to their submissions to LIBOR and EURIBOR. This misconduct includes attempted manipulation. In some cases those attempts were to lower the final LIBOR rate, and in others they were to increase it. Such attempts may only have moved the overall LIBOR rate by a fraction of a percentage point, if at all. Consequently, it is very difficult to establish any sort of net effect from the attempted manipulation.

Life Insurance

Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will assess the extent to which life assurance companies can claim that policy illustrations convey meaningful information to the policyholders in the absence of probabilities that each projection will appertain in practice.

Greg Clark: The claims which life assurance companies can make about illustrations of likely future returns are prescribed by long standing Financial Services Authority rules. These rules set out how illustrations should be calculated and presented. They also require that illustrations be accompanied by appropriate risk warnings, including warnings about volatility and the degree to which any figures can be relied upon.

Mortgages

Vernon Coaker: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 covers mortgages granted under the Industrial and Provident Societies Act (Northern Ireland) 1969; and if he will make a statement.

Sajid Javid: Mortgages cannot be granted under the Industrial and Provident Societies Act (Northern Ireland) 1969, or any other parliamentary Act.

Revenue and Customs

Gregg McClymont: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people were employed by HM Revenue and Customs in January (a) 2010, (b) 2011 and (c) 2012.

David Gauke: The number of staff employed in HM Revenue and Customs in March (a) 2010, (b) 2011 and (c) 2012 is shown in the following table. We have also included total staff numbers for 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009.
	HMRC is unable to provide January figures for these years as HMRC only keeps financial year end data, to enable historical comparison and consistency with published data.
	
		
			  HMRC total headcount 
			 31 March 2005 104,674 
			 31 March 2006 100,738 
			 31 March 2007 96,511 
		
	
	
		
			 31 March 2008 90,961 
			 31 March 2009 88,875 
			 31 March 2010 78,057 
			 31 March 2011 74,380 
			 31 March 2012 74,983 
		
	
	In 2005-06, approximately 1,100 Enforcement and Compliance staff transferred out of the Department to Serious Organised Crime Agency.
	In 2009-10, approximately 4,500 Enforcement and Compliance staff transferred out of the Department to UK Border Agency.

Revenue and Customs: Telephone Services

Gregg McClymont: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
	(1)  if he will estimate the cost that would be incurred to the public purse of making HM Revenue and Customs' public contact numbers freephone services;
	(2)  what recent assessment he has made of the feasibility and cost of switching HM Revenue and Customs' public contact telephone numbers to a freephone service.

David Gauke: HMRC has not made a recent detailed assessment of the feasibility and cost of switching HM Revenue and Customs' public contact telephone numbers to a freephone service (0800 numbers). However, the Department deals with around 80 million calls annually and believes that moving to a freephone service would be too costly.
	In August 2012, HMRC announced an additional investment of £34 million over the next 18 months to ensure that contact centre performance improves, aiming to meet and sustain its target of answering 90% of all calls.
	In 2011, HMRC moved its Tax Credit helpline to a 0345 prefix service. This represents 40% of its customer base. On 28 January 2013, HMRC advised the Public Accounts Committee that it also plans to start moving its remaining 0845 numbers to 03 prefix numbers. This work will start in April 2013, with its child benefit helpline. All other HMRC helplines with a 08 prefix will transfer to 03 prefix numbers by the end of summer 2013. This will help to reduce the costs of calls for some of HMRC's most vulnerable customers.

Roads: Construction

Therese Coffey: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer which of the road building projects announced in the 2012 autumn statement will require a toll to be levied to finance the project.

Danny Alexander: In the 2012 autumn statement, 5 December 2012, Official Report, columns 871-82, the Government announced £1.5 billion of additional funding to enhance and improve the road network and to reduce congestion. This includes upgrading key sections of the A1 in the north-east, building a link between the A5 and M1 in the east of England, dualling a section of the A30 in the south-west and improving junction 30 of the M25. None of these road building schemes will require a toll for finance.

Sovereign Wealth Funds

Richard Graham: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what consideration his Department has given to seeking finance for infrastructure projects in the UK from sovereign wealth funds; and if he will make a statement.

Danny Alexander: This Government set out in our 5-year Strategy for UKTI published in May 2011, “Britain Open for Business”, the intended approach to attracting inward investment from major overseas institutional investors. UKTI has now established the Strategic Relations team and is actively engaged in this initiative with the world's largest sovereign wealth funds.
	The “National Infrastructure Plan—Update 2012”, published alongside the autumn statement, highlights some of the successes already achieved in this area. The Chancellor and Commercial Secretary meet routinely with major international investors to promote inward investment into the UK. In addition, Infrastructure UK provides support to UKTI in relation to infrastructure investment.

Sovereign Wealth Funds

Richard Graham: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much finance the UK has received from sovereign wealth funds in each of the last five years, by country.

Danny Alexander: Sovereign wealth funds do not publish all of their investment activity and it is not usually possible to disaggregate international capital flow statistics into individual investors. As a result this information is not readily available. However, sovereign wealth funds are major holders of Gilt securities and publicly listed equity and debt securities in the UK and are increasingly diversifying into unlisted investments.
	Recent acquisitions of stakes in UK infrastructure by sovereign wealth funds include: China Investment Corporation in Thames Water and Heathrow airport; State Administration of Foreign Exchange in Veolia Water UK; Abu Dhabi Investment Authority in Thames Water; and Qatar Holding in Heathrow airport.
	Chapter 10 of the ONS Pink Book provides a geographical breakdown of all financial investment in the UK:
	www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/bop/united-kingdom-balance-of-payments/2012/bod-the-pink-book-2012.pdf
	UKTI's annual inward investment report might also be of interest:
	http://www.ukti.gov.uk/uktihome/aboutukti/item/344820.html

Taxation: Northern Ireland

Margaret Ritchie: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much has accrued to the Exchequer from liabilities for (a) personal and (b) corporate tax arising in Northern Ireland in each of the last five years.

David Gauke: The information is as follows:
	(a) Estimates for personal tax liabilities in Northern Ireland in the five tax years to 2009-10 are shown in the following table.
	
		
			 Northern Ireland revenue estimates 
			  Income tax 
			 2005-06 2,640 
			 2006-07 2,870 
			 2007-08 3,080 
			 2008-09 n/a 
			 2009-10 2,660 
			 2010-11 2,640 
		
	
	These outturns are based on the Survey of Personal Incomes (SPI) and published in Table 3.11 “Income and tax, by gender, region and country”, available on the HMRC website at:
	http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/statistics/income-by-year.htm
	(b) The consultation document “Rebalancing the Northern Ireland economy”, published by HM Treasury on 24 March 2011, includes estimates of the amount of corporation tax for Northern Ireland based companies at paragraph 4.34 (page 26). The analysis of Northern Ireland postcodes implies that Northern Ireland corporation tax receipts, excluding North Sea oil and gas, and also excluding branches, varied between 1.3% and 1.6% of UK corporation tax receipts between 2002-03 and 2007-08, broadly averaging 1.5%. In 2008-09 the Northern Ireland tax base dipped to 1.1% of UK corporation tax receipts. Figures for 2009-10 are not available on a comparable basis.
	Estimates for corporate tax liabilities are available on the HMRC website:
	http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/statistics/ct-receipts/table11-1b.pdf

UK Membership of EU

Nicholas Dakin: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment (a) his Department, (b) the associated public bodies which report to his Department and (c) the Office of Budget Responsibility has made of the potential effect of a withdrawal of the UK from the European Union on the Government's strategy of deficit reduction.

Wayne David: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment (a) his Department, (b) those bodies for which he is responsible and (c) the Office of Budget Responsibility has made of the potential effect of a withdrawal of the UK from the EU on the budget deficit.

Greg Clark: The Department has not made any plans for UK withdrawal from the EU. Part (c) of these questions falls within the responsibilities of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), and I have asked the OBR to reply.

UK Membership of EU

Nicholas Dakin: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
	(1)  what contingency plans his Department (a) has made, (b) is making and (c) plans to make for British withdrawal from the European Union; whether those contingency plans will be published; and what assessment he has made of the cost of implementing those contingency plans;
	(2)  what assessment his Department has made of the cost to the UK of withdrawal from the European Union; when that assessment was made; and whether his Department plans to conduct a further such assessment.

Wayne David: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether his Department has conducted contingency exercises to assess the potential risks to (a) UK businesses, (b) inward investment, (c) tax receipts, (d) the rate of economic growth, (e) the UK's budget deficit and (f) the public sector debt to gross domestic product ratio of (i) renegotiation of UK's terms of membership of the EU, (ii) a referendum on the UK's membership of the EU and (iii) withdrawal from the EU.

Greg Clark: The Department has not made any plans for UK withdrawal from the EU.

Wales

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the regional, sub-regional and local gross value added estimates as they apply to Wales, published by the Office of National Statistics in December 2012.

Danny Alexander: The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes estimates of regional gross value added (GVA) annually. On 12 December 2012 they published estimates for 2011 that are provisional and may be revised. The following table shows growth rates for regional, sub-regional and local GVA in Wales. All estimates are presented in current prices and not volume measures that take account of price changes.
	The need to return the UK economy to sustainable growth that is more balanced across the UK and across sectors has been at the centre of the Government's economic strategy.
	
		
			 Regional, sub-regional and local GVA growth estimates, Wales 
			 £ million (current prices) 
			  Total GVA growth (percentage change, year on year) 
			  1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 
			 NUTS1               
			 Wales headline total 4.7 3.7 3.4 4.5 5.0 6.2 5.2 4.3 5.1 5.0 1.0 -2.2 4.4 2.2 
			                
			 NUTS2               
			 West Wales and The Valleys 3.8 2.8 2.8 4.0 4.9 6.2 5.8 4.7 5.5 4.9 1.1 -2.2 4.6 2.4 
		
	
	
		
			 East Wales 5.8 4.8 4.1 5.1 5.2 6.2 4.4 3.7 4.7 5.1 1.0 -2.3 4.2 2.0 
			                
			 NUTS3               
			 Isle of Anglesey 4.8 5.7 6.0 8.3 7.1 8.2 6.8 5.4 6.7 5.9 1.4 -1.1 5.4 3.8 
			 Gwynedd 2.8 1.4 3.1 7.7 8.3 8.3 6.2 4.1 5.1 4.4 -0.1 -3.1 2.4 1.4 
			 Conwy and Denbighshire 4.5 3.4 3.4 4.6 5.6 7.0 6.3 3.7 4.1 4.5 1.1 -2.8 4.1 2.0 
			 South West Wales 3.6 3.9 3.3 3.5 3.7 6.6 8.3 7.3 7.2 6.2 0.1 -2.7 4.9 3.0 
			 Central Valleys 3.9 2.4 3.5 5.4 6.1 5.6 3.3 2.5 4.0 4.1 1.3 -1.7 5.1 2.5 
			 Gwent Valleys 5.2 3.0 1.7 1.4 2.8 4.9 5.5 4.5 5.4 3.5 0.7 -2.4 4.6 2.7 
			 Bridgend and Neath Port Talbot 0.8 -0 8 -0.7 1.7 3.6 5.6 5.5 6.0 7.9 7.3 2.6 -1.8 5.1 2.0 
			 Swansea 6.0 5.3 5.6 5.7 5.8 6.2 5.4 3.6 3.4 3.1 1.2 -1.3 4.3 1.8 
			 Monmouthshire and Newport 7.4 5.5 3.5 3.8 4.3 7.7 6.4 4.8 4.2 3.8 0.3 -3.2 4.3 1.8 
			 Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan 7.2 6.6 5.9 7.1 6.0 6.6 4.6 4.1 4.9 5.8 2.2 -1.8 3.2 1.4 
			 Flintshire and Wrexham 2.8 2.1 1.7 2.6 3.2 3.5 3.0 3.6 5.9 5.3 0.4 -1.5 5.9 2.9 
			 Powys 4.2 2.7 3.4 5.3 8.0 7.3 2.2 -0.1 1.7 3.9 -2.8 -5.5 4.1 3.6

WOMEN AND EQUALITIES

Conditions of Employment

Ann McKechin: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities what proportion of staff in the Government Equalities Office currently work (a) part-time, (b) in a job-share or (c) in another flexible working arrangement.

Helen Grant: The information is as follows:
	(a) As at 31 December 2012 (the latest available data) 14.00% of GEO employees were working part-time.
	(b) and (c) The Department's Human Resources system (Adelphi) allows employees to record a flexible working pattern on the system themselves. It should be noted that it is not mandatory for employees to note any flexible working arrangements on Adelphi and, of the civil servants working in the GEO at 31 December 2012, only 82.88% had recorded if they have a flexible working pattern or not. 0.90% of civil servants in the GEO at 31 December 2012 had recorded that they were involved in a job share and 53.15% had some other sort of flexible working arrangement listed (including compressed hours, flexi time, home working and staggered hours).

CABINET OFFICE

Culture, Practices and Ethics of the Press Inquiry

John McDonnell: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office with reference to paragraph 83 of the summary of recommendations in Lord Justice Leveson's report on The Culture, Practices and Ethics of the Press, what steps his Department has taken to comply with the recommendations set out in that paragraph.

Francis Maude: The Government already publish, on a quarterly basis, information about meetings between Ministers, permanent secretaries, special advisers and media proprietors, editors and senior executives. Cross-party talks about Lord Justice Leveson's recommendations, including the implementation of recommendations at paragraph 83 for Government Ministers and Front Bench Opposition spokesmen, are ongoing.

Cybercrime

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what assessment he has made of the likely effect on Government cyber security of the development of network virtualisation.

Chloe Smith: In developing our ICT Strategy Government work very closely with CESG, the Information Assurance Arm of GCHQ, and the Security Services in order to ensure that the relevant security is considered and employed. This complements the ongoing and routine support CESG provides to the Government on how to protect our networks and detect and mitigate various types of cyber attack.

Employment

Jack Dromey: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what proportion of people in (a) Birmingham, Erdington constituency, (b) Birmingham and (c) nationally were employed in the (i) private, (ii) public and (iii) third sector in each of the last five years.

Nick Hurd: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	Letter from Glen Watson
	As Director General for the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking, what proportion of people in (a) Birmingham Erdington constituency, (b) Birmingham and (c) nationally were employed in the (i) private, (ii) public and (iii) third sector in each of the last five years. (140908)
	Employment statistics for local areas are calculated from the Annual Population Survey (APS). Estimates of people employed in the third sector are currently not available from APS. Individuals employed in voluntary organisations, charities and trusts are included in private sector estimates. Individuals in the APS are classified to the public or private sector according to their responses to the survey. In the APS the distinction between public and private sector is based on respondents' views about the organisation for which they work. The public sector estimates provided do not correspond to official Public Sector Employment estimates. Those are derived directly from employers and are based on a National Accounts' definition and are not available for areas smaller than regions.
	The tables show the number and percentage of people aged 16 to 64 years, who were employed in the public or private sector along with those who were unemployed or inactive, resident in Birmingham, Erdington constituency; Birmingham and the UK. These estimates are compiled from APS interviews held during the period October 2011 to September 2012, the latest period available, and the 12 month periods ending in December from 2008 to 2011. It should also be noted that the estimates also include people who were employed but have not provided enough information to be accurately included in either the public or private sectors.
	As with any sample survey, estimates from the APS are subject to a margin of uncertainty. A guide to the quality of the estimates is given in the table.
	National and local area estimates for many labour market statistics, including employment, unemployment and claimant count are available on the NOMIS website at:
	http://www.nomisweb.co.uk
	The tables will be stored in the Library of the House.

Employment: North East

Andrew Stephenson: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many people were employed in (a) part-time and (b) full-time work in (i) Pendle constituency, (ii) Lancashire and (iii) the North West in (A) 2009, (B) 2010, (C) 2011 and (D) 2012.

Nick Hurd: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	Letter from Glen Watson, dated January 2013
	As Director General for the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking how many people were employed in (a) part-time and (b) full-time work in (i) Pendle constituency, (ii) Lancashire and (iii) the North West in (A) 2009, (B) 2010, (C) 2011 and (D) 2012. (140576)
	The ONS compiles Labour Market Statistics for areas below the UK following International Labour Organisation (ILO) definitions using the Annual Population Survey (APS).
	The table shows the number of people who were employed full-time or part-time in Lancashire and the UK during the 12 month period ending September 2012, the latest available period, and the 12 month periods ending in December from 2009 to 2011. The sample size for Pendle is too small to reliably split full-time and part-time employees.
	
		
			 Number of people employed full time or part time 
			 Thousand 
			  Pendle Lancashire North West 
			 12 months ending: FT and PT Full time Part time Full time Part time 
			 December 2009 28 392 131 2,281 791 
			 December 2010 30 406 147 2,290 834 
			 December 2011 30 395 159 2,264 844 
			 September 2012(1) ***26 *378 **160 *2,252 *855 
			 (1) Coefficients of Variation have been calculated for the latest period as an indication of the quality of the estimates. See Guide to Quality. Guide to Quality: The Coefficient of Variation (CV) indicates the quality of an estimate, the smaller the CV value the higher the quality. The true value is likely to lie within +/- twice the CV—for example, for an estimate of 200 with a CV of 5% we would expect the population total to be within the range 180-220. Key: * 0 = CV <5%—Statistical Robustness: Estimates are considered precise ** 5 = CV <10%—Statistical Robustness: Estimates are considered reasonably precise *** 10 = CV <20%—Statistical Robustness: Estimates are considered acceptable **** CV ? 20%—Statistical Robustness: Estimates are considered too unreliable for practical purposes Source: Annual Population Survey

Job Creation: Lancashire

Andrew Stephenson: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office if he will estimate the number of (a) part-time and (b) temporary jobs created in (i) Pendle constituency and (ii) Lancashire since May 2010.

Nick Hurd: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	Letter from Glen Watson, dated January 2013
	As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking for the number of (a) part-time and (b) temporary jobs created in (i) Pendle constituency and (ii) Lancashire since May 2010. (140577)
	ONS compiles Labour Market Statistics following International Labour Organisation (ILO) definitions for areas smaller than the UK from the Annual Population Survey. (APS).
	Information regarding jobs created is not available. As an alternative we have provided estimates of the number of people who were employed part-time or employed in jobs that were not permanent according to survey responses, during the 12 month periods ending June 2010, the survey period closest to May 2010, and September 2012 the latest period available, along with the net change between these two periods. This net change provides a reasonable approximation of the number of jobs created since May 2010.
	As with any sample survey, estimates from the APS are subject to a margin of uncertainty.
	National and local area estimates for many labour market statistics, including employment, unemployment and claimant count are available on the NOMIS website at:
	http://www.nomisweb.co.uk
	
		
			 Table 1: Number of people employed part-time(1) 
			 Thousand 
			  Level  
			 12 months ending: June 2010 September 2012 Change between 12 month periods ending June 2010 and September 2012 
			 Pendle 9 10 1 
			 Lancashire 135 161 25 
			 (1) Part-time in main job. Note: All estimates are independently rounded. Source: Annual Population Survey 
		
	
	
		
			 Table 2: Number of people employed in temporary(1) jobs 
			 Thousand 
			  Level  
			 12 months ending: June 2010 September 2012 Change between 12 month periods ending June 2010 and September 2012 
			 Pendle 2 1 -1 
			 Lancashire 26 25 -1 
			 (1) Temporary is defined as “not permanent in some way”. Reasons included are: Working for employment agency; Casual type of work; Seasonal work; Under contract for fixed term or fixed task; Other reason. Note: All estimates are independently rounded.

Parents: Resignations

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what information he holds on the number of (a) mothers and (b) fathers who have left work after the birth of a child to become a full-time parent.

Nick Hurd: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	Letter from Glen Watson, dated January 2013
	As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking what information he holds on the number of (a) mothers and (b) fathers who have left work after the birth of a child to become a full-time parent (140540).
	The Office for National Statistics (ONS) compiles economic status data from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). Unfortunately, we cannot identify what those who are looking after the family were doing before the birth of the child.

Pay: West Midlands

Jack Dromey: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what the average salary was in (a) Birmingham, Erdington constituency, (b) Birmingham and (c) the West Midlands for (i) women and (ii) men in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

Nick Hurd: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	Letter from Glen Watson
	As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking what the average salary was in (a) Birmingham, Erdington constituency, (b) Birmingham and (c) the West Midlands for (i) women and (ii) men in each of the last five years for which figures are available. (140915)
	The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), carried out in April each year, is the most comprehensive source of earnings information in the United Kingdom. Annual levels of earnings are estimated from ASHE, and are provided for employees on adult rates of pay, who have been in the same job for more than a year.
	The following tables show the median gross annual earnings for all male and all female employees in (a) Birmingham, Erdington constituency, (b) Birmingham and (c) the West Midlands for each year from 2008 to 2012.
	
		
			 Median gross annual earnings for all male and all female employee jobs(1) in (a) Birmingham, Erdington constituency, (b) Birmingham and (c) the West Midlands from 2008 to 2012 
			 £ 
			  Birmingham, Erdington constituency Birmingham West Midlands 
			  Male Female Male Female Male Female 
			 2008 **26,213 X 25,577 *17,162 24,776 14,434 
			 2009 *27,190 *16,244 26,421 17,824 24,689 14,868 
			 2010 *26,439 *16,345 26,403 17,478 24,501 14,922 
			 2011(2) *26,899 *16,662 27,054 18,000 24,988 15,000 
			 2011(3) *26,790 *16,642 26,872 17,758 24,683 14,827 
			 2012 *27,622 *18,306 26,702 18,285 24,722 15,000 
			 (1) Employees on adult rates who have been in the same job for more than one year. (2) 2011 results based on Standard Occupational Classification 2000. (3) 2011 results based on Standard Occupational Classification 2010. Guide to Quality: The Coefficient of Variation (CV) indicates the quality of a figure, the smaller the CV value the higher the quality. The true value is likely to lie within +/- twice the CV—for example, for an average of 200 with a CV of 5% we would expect the population average to be within the range 180 to 220. Key: CV<=5% * CV >5% and <=10% CV >10% and ** <=20% X unreliable. Source: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), Office for National Statistics.

Recruitment

Rachel Reeves: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office 
	(1)  how much his Department has spent on advertising job vacancies since May 2010;
	(2)  how much No. 10 Downing Street has spent on advertising job vacancies since May 2010.

Francis Maude: The Prime Minister's Office is an integral part of the Cabinet Office.
	Since the last General Election, my Department has helped drive savings for the taxpayer from across central Government of over £12 billion.
	In the past there were no central controls over recruitment. On 25 May 2010 the Government announced a freeze on all recruitment other than those specially exempted by a ministerial decision. Since then my Department has spent £21,537 advertising vacancies.
	By way of comparison this Department spent £226,853 in 2007-08 and £273,148 in 2008-09 on “advertising-recruitment”.

Surveys

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office on what date the report of the most recent survey of staff attitudes in the Cabinet Office was published; on what date the report of the next such survey will be issued; and if he will place in the Library a copy of that report.

Francis Maude: The Cabinet Office, in common with other Departments, will be publishing the results of the Cabinet Office People Survey 2012 on its departmental website on 31 January 2013.
	The survey timings for 2013 are yet to be confirmed.

Work Experience

Margaret Curran: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what estimate he has made of the number of people in each (a) age group and (b) administrative location who have no experience of full or part-time work.

Nick Hurd: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	Letter from Glen Watson, dated January 2013
	As Director General for the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking for the number of people in each (a) age group and (b) administrative location who have no experience of full or part-time work. (140724)
	The ONS compiles Labour Market Statistics for areas below the UK following International Labour Organisation (ILO) definitions using the Annual Population Survey (APS).
	The tables show the number of people who have never had a paid job or place on a scheme according to survey responses during the period October 2011 to September 2012. Estimates for Northern Ireland local authorities are not available from this source. As the information requested is quite extensive, a copy has been placed in the House of Commons Library.
	As with any sample survey, estimates from the APS are subject to a margin of uncertainty. A guide to the quality of the estimates is given in the tables.
	National and local area estimates for many labour market statistics, including employment, unemployment and claimant count are available on the NOMIS website at:
	http://www.nomisweb.co.uk
	The tables will be stored in the Library of the House.

BUSINESS, INNOVATION AND SKILLS

Insolvency

Tom Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills if he will bring forward legislative proposals to amend the Insolvency Act 1986 to give preferential creditor status to those consumers who have purchased gift vouchers from companies in the UK.

Jo Swinson: I have no plans to bring forward such legislative proposals.
	An underlying principle in insolvency law is that all creditors are treated equally within their class—the fairest way of treating creditors where there are insufficient funds to pay them all. For this reason the list of preferential creditors is kept to an absolute minimum; if one group of creditors is preferred, it can only mean that the position of all other creditors below them is worsened.

New Businesses

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what facilities and support are available to newly-founded companies to assist them with employee regulations and legislation.

Jo Swinson: Guidance on employment regulations and legislation is provided online on the single Government website:
	www.gov.uk
	The website has a section aimed at employers called Employing people at:
	https://www.gov.uk/browse/employing-people
	and a page specifically aimed at new employers called Employing staff for the first time at:
	https://www.gov.uk/employing-staff
	BIS sponsors The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) which provides guidance, best practice and advice on employment rights and law to employers and workers through its helpline. The Helpline (08457 47 47 47) provides employers, employees and their representatives with advice designed to help them avoid or resolve disputes in the workplace.
	The Pay and Work Rights helpline provides advice and guidance on employment rights and law to everyone and is contactable by telephone on 0800 917 2368 and via an online inquiry form at:
	https://payandworkrights.direct.gov.uk/
	Information and advice for small and medium sized businesses is promoted through the Business in You campaign:
	http://businessinyou.bis.gov.uk/
	and
	https://twitter.com/businesslinkgov
	using #businessinyou. In particular, a section of advice on the Business in You website is dedicated to providing advice and support around employment for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), as employment is one of the core themes of the Business in You campaign.

Overseas Trade: China

Alun Cairns: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what steps his Department takes to support companies in accessing and using Renminbi when trading with China.

Greg Clark: I have been asked to reply 
	on behalf of the Treasury.
	The Government are supporting the private sector led development of the international RMB market in London, with the objective of establishing London as the Western Hub for RMB business.
	HM Treasury is leading this development through the facilitation of the London-Hong Kong International RMB Forum. On the second day of the Forum in December I was pleased to welcome over 60 corporate treasurers to HMT to discuss the opportunities to access RMB products and services in London.

Overseas Workers

Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills in which countries UK civilian workers employed by his Department are based.

Jo Swinson: The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills does not hold this information centrally.

Postgraduate Education

Shabana Mahmood: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what steps his Department is taking as a result of a fall in the number of postgraduate students enrolled at universities in 2013.

David Willetts: The Government recognise the important role of postgraduate study in sustaining higher level skills for the UK, contributing to the development of the next generation of researchers for academia and for supporting the wider economy and sustainable economic growth.
	In 2011, I asked the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to undertake a programme of work to understand the impact of changes in higher education finance on postgraduates. That programme is ongoing. The numbers of students undertaking postgraduate education continued to increase through the early part of the recession and the decline in the last year may partly represent stabilising of the market following a period of significant growth.
	Government support for both postgraduate taught and research provision is continuing. For 2012-13, HEFCE's allocation for taught postgraduate provision is being maintained at similar levels to 2011-12, at ca £135 million. In addition, HEFCE will provide £240 million for postgraduate research degree supervision support, and Research Councils will invest £340 million in postgraduate research provision.

Refineries: Overseas Workers

Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what information his Department holds on the number of oil or gas refineries employing UK citizens in (a) the Middle East, (b) North Africa and the Sahel, (c) Europe, (d) South East Asia and (e) North America.

Michael Fallon: No such information is held by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Students: Finance

Shabana Mahmood: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what resources his Department plans to allocate to explain the student finance system to potential applicants in 2013.

David Willetts: Those who are applying to study in the 2013/14 academic year are the principal target audience for our communications activity for the financial year 2012/13. We are running a second year of the Student Finance Tour, which is available to all schools and colleges with sixth form provision, and which to date has visited almost 2,000 venues. We also ran a digital campaign in the new year which reached over 90% of all 17 to 18-year-olds with details of university application and student finance. The total cost of the 2012/13 campaign is £1.125 million.
	The Student Loans Company is also targeting those wishing to start university in the 2013/14 academic year with information about how to apply promptly and successfully for student finance, working with organisations such as UCAS and The Student Room. The cost of this is £386,000.
	We continue to work through our stakeholder reference group and with the higher education sector more widely on tailored and effective communications.
	BIS is still in the planning phase for communications activity targeted at those who will apply in 2013 to begin higher education in September 2014. This will be informed by evaluation of our communications activity, especially the effectiveness of the Student Finance Tour.

WORK AND PENSIONS

Employment Schemes: Young People

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the proportion of manufacturing firms that have taken up the Youth Contract wage subsidy; and if he will make a statement.

Mark Hoban: Following the collection and quality assurance of this data, I expect the first set of Official Statistics on the wage incentive to be available in the early part of 2013. The Department is working to guidelines set by the UK Statistics Authority to ensure we publish statistics that meet high quality standards at the earliest opportunity.
	However, we do not routinely collect data on employers by trade; we do not know what proportion of Youth Contract wage incentive-related jobs are with manufacturing firms.

Employment Schemes: Young People

Andrew Percy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many young people in (a) Brigg and Goole constituency and (b) Yorkshire and the Humber have participated in his Department's work experience schemes in the latest period for which figures are available.

Mark Hoban: For the period January 2011 up to and including May 2012, there have been (a) 90 starts to a work experience placement in Brigg and Goole constituency and (b) 2,260 starts to a work experience placement in the Jobcentre Plus district of North East Yorkshire and the Humber.
	The values have been rounded to the nearest 10.
	These figures are based upon official Get Britain Working statistics available via the DWP website:
	http://statistics.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd1/pwp/pwp_gbw_aug12.pdf

Employment: Veterans

Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how his Department monitors the employment of former members of the armed forces.

Mark Hoban: We do not obtain information on the number of former armed forces personnel who use DWP services, and therefore cannot monitor their employment. However, we are aware of the importance of this, which is why we have an armed forces champion in each Jobcentre Plus district, whose role is to ensure the support, advice and guidance offered reflects the needs of service leavers and the wider service community. The champions work in partnership with the armed forces community, support organisations and local and national employers to identify employment opportunities and specialist support for service leavers.

New Enterprise Allowance

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people have (a) applied for and (b) received a loan for the start up costs of a new business under the New Enterprise Allowance.

Mark Hoban: We do not publish data on the numbers of people who have applied for the New Enterprise Allowance (NEA) loan or the number of people who have received the loan.
	However, we do have published data on the number of NEA mentor starts and weekly allowance starts for the period April 2011 up to and including May 2012. This can be found here:
	http://statistics.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd1/pwp/pwp_gbw_aug12.pdf

Social Security Benefits: Fraud

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the timetable is for the roll-out of the Single Fraud Investigation Service; and if he will make a statement.

Mark Hoban: The Welfare Reform Act provides the powers to facilitate the creation of a new single, integrated fraud investigation service covering the totality of welfare benefit fraud. This means we will have a single investigation on welfare benefit and tax credit fraud, carried out by staff from either the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and local authorities, creating a more efficient and effective service.
	Design of the Single Fraud Investigation Service (SFIS) is being developed collaboratively between DWP, HMRC and local authorities. Pilots testing the design began in November 2012 ahead of the launch of the service. The pilot areas are Corby borough council, Glasgow city council, London borough of Hillingdon and Wrexham council.
	Additional piloting and pathfinder testing of SFIS will be undertaken in 2013-14 taking account of the evaluation of the first set of pilots that started in November 2012, ahead of the roll-out of the service in 2014-15.

Universal Credit

Caroline Dinenage: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps he is taking to assist those with literacy and computer literacy problems in using the new universal credit system.

Mark Hoban: Universal credit has developed its online service using customer insight and work to determine claimant needs. The design has been user tested as it has developed with existing claimants and staff in order to continually improve and create an easy to use online service.
	Universal credit is developing all its products using the DWP guidelines for level of literacy required of between nine and 13 years of age and to be compliant with disability legislation. We are also taking the opportunity to simplify the language we use and will provide appropriate support for those who need it.

Work Programme

Caroline Dinenage: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps he is taking to address levels of functional illiteracy on the Work programme.

Mark Hoban: Work programme providers have the flexibility to design individually tailored support based on participant need. If providers cannot deliver this either in-house or through their existing subcontractors they would be expected to source specialist provision to meet the needs of people as required. In addition, basic skills provision in literacy is available to Work programme participants through the Skills Funding Agency.

Work Programme

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether (a) Cricklewood Homeless Concern, (b) The Mustard Tree, Manchester and (c) Shekinah, Plymouth (i) are included in the Work programme supply chain list, (ii) have agreed contractual terms with a Work programme prime provider and (iii) have received any Work programme referrals.

Mark Hoban: All three organisations are listed in the Work programme supply chain.
	The contractual terms and flow of business is a commercial matter between the prime provider and their subcontractors.

Work Programme: West Midlands

Jack Dromey: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in the Work programme in (a) Birmingham, Erdington constituency, (b) Birmingham and (c) the West Midlands have been placed on zero-hour contracts to date.

Mark Hoban: The Department does not hold information on the number of people on the Work programme who have been placed on zero-hour contracts.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Africa

Gemma Doyle: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many of her Department's staff are based in (a) Mali, (b) Niger, (c) Nigeria, (d) Algeria, (e) Mauritania, (f) Burkina Faso, (g) Chad, (h) Libya, (i) Sudan, (j) South Sudan, (k) Ethiopia, (l) Somalia, (m) Kenya and (n) Western Sahara.

Alan Duncan: DFID does not publish staff numbers for country offices, following advice on DFID's work in insecure environments by the National Audit Office in October 2008, and a review of our security policies and procedures.
	DFID takes its duty of care for its staff very seriously. Providing staff numbers is inappropriate because it can provide useful information to people who wish to harm UK staff and interests. It also makes DFID vulnerable to adverse diplomatic and public reactions in some situations, for example when withdrawing non-essential staff during periods of high threat.

Overseas Aid

Margaret Ritchie: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development when she plans to invite applications to the UK Aid matched funding programme in 2013; and what criteria will be used to determine the success of applications.

Alan Duncan: The Secretary of State for International Development is reviewing the UK Aid Match scheme. Information about the future of the scheme will be published in due course.

Palestinians

Philip Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development 
	(1)  what information her Department holds on whether the allowance paid by the Palestinian Authority differs between married and unmarried Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails;
	(2)  what information her Department holds on whether the Palestinian Authority makes payments to unmarried Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Andrew Percy: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development 
	(1)  what information her Department holds on whether Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails convicted of terrorist offences receive financial payments from the Palestinian Authority each month;
	(2)  what information her Department holds on whether the allowance paid by the Palestinian Authority to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails is determined by the length of sentence being served.

Alan Duncan: The Palestinian Authority pays an allowance to cover the cost of food and clothing for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. The nature of this allowance is governed and managed by the Israeli authorities.
	UK assistance to the Palestinian Authority (PA) supports a successful Middle East Peace Process by helping build Palestinian institutions and promoting economic growth, so that any future state will be stable, prosperous, well-run, and an effective partner for peace with Israel. This is provided subject to a number of safeguards.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

Africa

Gemma Doyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many of his Department's staff are based in (a) Mali, (b) Niger, (c) Nigeria, (d) Algeria, (e) Mauritania, (f) Burkina Faso, (g) Chad, (h) Libya, (i) Sudan, (j) South Sudan, (k) Ethiopia, (l) Somalia, (m) Kenya and (n) Western Sahara.

Alistair Burt: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has staff in the following countries:
	
		
			  Staff 
			 Republic of Mali (1)— 
			 Federal Republic of Nigeria 373 
			 People's Democratic Republic of Algeria 62 
			 State of Libya 115 
			 Islamic Republic of Mauritania (1)— 
			 Republic of the Sudan 249 
			 Republic of South Sudan 7 
			 Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia 153 
			 Republic of Kenya 181 
			 (1) For operational and security reasons we do not disclose the precise number of staff in embassies, high commissions or consulates of fewer than five staff. 
		
	
	These figures include FCO UK based staff, and those employed locally by our posts overseas. They do not include other departments' staff based in our posts. The other countries listed in the question have no permanent FCO staff. A majority of local staff will be employed in support functions, which includes guarding roles. The number of staff employed in these roles are dependent on the security considerations in each country and the specific arrangements made by each post.
	The British Office for Somalia is located within the British high commission in Nairobi, Kenya. Its staff are reflected in the figure for Kenya above. Western Sahara is a disputed territory and the UK regards its status as undetermined. There is no British diplomatic or consular presence in the area known as Western Sahara.

Bulgaria

Philip Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations he has made to his EU counterparts about involvement by Hezbollah in the Burgas terror attack.

Alistair Burt: We remain deeply concerned by indications that Hezbollah was involved in the terrorist attack in Bourgas. Once the official Bulgarian investigation has concluded, the EU will need to decide how to respond. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs is in close touch with his EU counterparts on this issue as is my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Home Department. Based on our national proscription, we continue to believe there is a strong case for similar action by the EU against the military wing of Hezbollah.

Burma

Valerie Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions he has had with Aung San Suu Kyi, on the Government's policy on aid to Burma.

Hugo Swire: The UK has made the largest commitment of bilateral aid to Burma and currently provides aid through trusted partners including UN agencies and non-governmental organisations rather than directly to the Burmese Government. During my visit to Burma in December 2012, I discussed a range of issues relating to Britain's policy towards Burma with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Aung San Suu Kyi has praised the Department for International Development's approach to aid in Burma. The British embassy in Rangoon continues to discuss British Government policy and our aid programme with Aung San Suu Kyi.

Burma

Valerie Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent representations he has made to the Government of Burma on the number of political prisoners in Burma's jails and detention centres.

Hugo Swire: The British Government recognise the progress made by the Burmese Government on releasing large numbers of political prisoners over the last two years, and granting the International Committee of the Red Cross access to Burmese prisons. We remain committed to ensuring that all remaining political prisoners are released, and their cases reviewed through a transparent and independent mechanism. During my visit to Burma from 12-15 December, I raised the issue of the prisoner review mechanism and addressed specific political prisoners' cases of concern to the UK Government including that of UNHCR employee Nandar Aung and her husband, following which both were released without charge. On 21 January, the British ambassador to Rangoon received assurances that the Burmese Government remain committed to the creation of an independent prisoner review mechanism. We will continue to follow up on progress made.

Burma

Rushanara Ali: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent representations he has made to his Burmese counterpart on (a) promoting tolerance and peaceful co-existence between Arakan Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims and (b) creating an environment conducive to the safe return of displaced people.

Hugo Swire: The British Government remain extremely concerned about the plight of internally displaced people from both the Rakhine Buddhist and Rohingya Muslim communities in Rakhine State.
	During my recent visit to Burma in December 2012, I visited Rakhine State and raised our concerns with Burmese Ministers and local leaders, including the chief Minister of Rakhine State. I called for security for all affected populations to prevent future outbreaks of violence and to allow the safe return of displaced people to their former homes. I also called for improved coordination and an increase in the level of humanitarian aid to affected communities. The British Government are providing £2 million in humanitarian assistance to people displaced in Rakhine State, enabling non-governmental organisations to provide support to 58,000 people from both communities. Thirdly, I called on the Burmese Government to take steps to bring those responsible for the violence to justice through a fair and transparent process in accordance with the rule of law. Finally, I urged the Burmese Government to address the longer term factors affecting the Rohingya community, including a review of their citizenship status.

Burma

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent discussions he has had with the Government of Burma on constitutional reform in that country; and what recent reports he has received on the role of the military in the Burmese Parliament.

Hugo Swire: The British Government support constitutional reform in Burma and are working with key Burmese institutions involved in the reform process. During my visit to Burma in December 2012 I raised with Burmese Ministers the prospects for Burma's transition towards democracy and offered support as Burma seeks to reform its laws and processes I repeated this offer of support to members of the Burmese Parliament, Nanda Kyaw Swo and Aung San Suu Kyi. British embassy officials are in regular contact with members of the Burmese Parliament who will be vital in developing Burma's constitutional framework. Three Burmese MPs from the Draft Bills Committee visited the UK from 11-16 December 2012 and met with Government and Parliament officials who shared expertise on legislative and constitutional processes I repeated this after. The British Government are also funding efforts by the Westminster Foundation for Democracy to support the Burmese Public Accounts Committee.
	The military continues to exert considerable influence in the Burmese Parliament. The current constitution provides that 25% of the members of both Houses are nominated from the military. Given that changes to the constitution require a parliamentary majority of at least 75%, this gives the military an effective veto over constitutional change. Senior Burmese Government Ministers have suggested that this could be reformed when the time is right.

North Korea

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment he has made of the merits of establishing a UN Commission of Inquiry into crimes against humanity in North Korea.

Hugo Swire: We remain extremely concerned at the extent of human rights abuses in North Korea and agree that more needs to be done to put pressure on the North Korean Government. To this end, we are currently consulting with partners in the UN about the merits of establishing an international inquiry into human rights violations in North Korea, in the Human Rights Council in Geneva in March.

North Korea

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent discussions he has had with (a) his international counterparts and (b) the North Korean ambassador about human rights in North Korea.

Hugo Swire: Human rights in North Korea are the subject of regular discussions both at ministerial and official level.
	On 6 September 2012, I met the North Korean ambassador and Rim Ju Song, who with the support of the British embassy in Pyongyang, became North Korea's first Paralympic athlete. During my conversation with the ambassador, I discussed the opportunities and rights for people with disabilities in North Korea.
	During my visit to Seoul in October 2012, I met the advisers to presidential candidates Ahn Cheol-soo and Moon Jae-in and discussed what approach their candidates would take towards human rights in North Korea. I met the Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ahn Ho-young, and discussed the likelihood of North Korea embarking on economic reform.
	In December 2012, I met the North Korean ambassador for a second time and discussed the importance of North Korea improving its overall human rights record. The ambassador confirmed that North Korea had no plans to change its current approach on human rights.
	During my visit to Japan in January 2013, I discussed the abduction of Japanese citizens by North Korea with the Senior Parliamentary Vice-Minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sunichi Suzuki.

Pakistan

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment he has made of the human rights situation in Pakistan, with particular reference to the protection of Hazaras and other minority ethnic groups; and if he will make a statement.

Alistair Burt: We remain deeply concerned by the human rights situation in Pakistan, particularly the violent persecution faced by minority ethnic and religious groups. The recent terrible attacks against the Shia community in Quetta on 10 January were a shocking example of this. Many of the victims were from the Hazara community. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs strongly condemned the senseless attacks and the persecution of the Shia population in a public statement on 11 January 2012.
	This Government's concerns about the treatment of the Hazara community in Pakistan are expressed in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's (FCO) Annual Human Rights Report. A House of Commons Adjournment Debate on this important issue has been tabled for 4 February.
	The FCO continues to urge the Government of Pakistan to protect and guarantee the fundamental rights of all their citizens. The Senior Minister of State, my right hon. and noble Friend Baroness Warsi, discussed the treatment of religious minorities with Pakistani Ministers during her visit in November 2012. She also hosted a Freedom of Religion and Belief Ministerial conference in London on 22 January 2013 where she was able to discuss these issues with the Pakistani Human Rights Minister.

Polar Bears

William Bain: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent representations he has made to his international counterparts on steps to tackle the illegal international trade in polar bears.

Richard Benyon: I have been asked to reply 
	on behalf of the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
	The UK is committed to the conservation of polar bears and supports a ban on international trade in polar bear pelts and other body parts, as we believe this will help safeguard the species. I recently met the Director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service to discuss the USA's proposal to ban international trade in polar bears and their products. The proposal will be considered at the 16th meeting of the Conference of Parties to CITES in March.
	Ahead of this meeting, we have made representations through UK embassies and high commissions to a number of countries about proposals of particular interest to the UK, including the USA's proposal to transfer the polar bear to Appendix I of CITES.

Rwanda

Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many meetings officials from his Department have held with their Rwandan counterparts since 2010.

Mark Simmonds: Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) officials meet frequently, at all levels, with their Rwandan counterparts in London, in Kigali and at international meetings. We do not hold information on the number of meetings that have been held between FCO officials and their Rwandan counterparts since 2010.

Somaliland

Stephen Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs for what reasons his Department issued revised travel advice for Somaliland and Somalia on 27 January 2013; and if he will make a statement.

Mark Simmonds: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office Travel Advice has always advised against all travel to Somalia including Somaliland. The latest update has been issued in response to a specific threat to Westerners in Somaliland.

Somaliland

Stephen Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions he has had with representatives of the Somaliland diaspora community on the revised travel advice issued by his Department on 27 January 2013.

Mark Simmonds: I have not discussed the revised travel advice with the Somaliland diaspora community, but they have been in touch with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to express their views on the changes.

Women's League of Burma

Valerie Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how much funding his Department provides to the Women's League of Burma.

Hugo Swire: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has not provided funding to the Women's League of Burma fund.

NORTHERN IRELAND

Bomb Disposal

Tobias Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many incidents requiring (a) civilian and (b) military experts in explosive ordnance disposal there have been in each year since 2010.

Andrew Robathan: I have been asked to reply 
	on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.
	The Explosive Ordnance Device teams in Northern Ireland respond with great professionalism to all requests for assistance. We will continue to support the Police Service of Northern Ireland in the most operationally effective way.
	Incidents requiring explosive ordnance disposal experts in Northern Ireland are dealt with solely by military personnel. The information requested on the number of occasions Explosive Ordnance Disposal personnel have responded to incidents in Northern Ireland is published annually in the Report of the Independent Reviewer of the Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Act 2007. Copies of the reports covering the years 2010, 2011 and up to July 2012 are available in the Library of the House.
	Between 1 August 2012 and 29 January 2013, Explosive Ordnance Disposal personnel have responded on a further 128 occasions to incidents in Northern Ireland.

JUSTICE

Community Orders

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many and what proportion of community orders or licences were successfully completed in (a) each region of England and (b) Wales in (i) 2010-11 and (ii) 2011-12; and if he will make a statement.

Jeremy Wright: The number and proportion of community orders, suspended sentence orders and licences that were successfully completed (ie ran their full course or were terminated early for good progress) in each region in 2010-11 and 2011-12 are shown in the following table.
	These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
	
		
			 Number and proportion of successfully completed(1) orders and licences in 2010-11 and 2011-12, England and Wales 
			  2010-11 2011-12 
			 Region Number Proportion (percentage) Number Proportion (percentage) 
			 East Midlands 11,430 74 11,262 74 
			 East of England 13,373 75 12,797 75 
			 London 23,038 75 22,775 77 
			 North East 9,307 81 8,968 81 
			 North West 23,493 75 23,475 76 
			 South East 17,116 74 17,106 75 
			 South West 9,793 77 9,678 78 
			 Wales 9,437 74 9,460 73 
			 West Midlands 17,223 75 15,430 74 
			 Yorkshire and Humberside 16,422 79 15,962 80 
			 (1 )A successfully completed order is one which has run its full course or been terminated early for good progress. Data Sources and Quality: These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems. Care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, but the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system, and so although shown to the last individual, the figures may not be accurate to that level.

Community Orders

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many hours of community payback were completed in (a) 2010-11 and (b) 2011-12 in (i) total, (ii) each region, (iii) each London borough and (iv) each constituent part of the UK; and if he will make a statement.

Jeremy Wright: The total hours of Community Payback work completed during 2010-11 and 2011-12 are shown in Table l, by probation trust and by region. Tables 2a and 2b provide the total hours worked by each London borough during the same periods.
	The reduction in the total hours worked between 2010-11 and 2011-12 reflects a reduction in the number of community payback sentences imposed by the courts as the crime rate has fallen. The proportion of offenders successfully completing community payback sentences increased last year.
	These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing. The data for London have been provided by Serco and London Probation Trust using different databases to that employed to obtain the national data. The individual databases will potentially have been updated at different times. Data relating to Community Payback hours worked are used only to identify trends and while care is taken to ensure accuracy the figures are not verified.
	
		
			 Table 1: Number of hours of community payback completed in 2010-11 and 2011-12 by probation trust and region 
			 Region  2010-11 2011-12 
			 Total hours England and Wales 8,139,856 7,794,349 
			     
			 East Midlands and East Bedfordshire 118,576 101,856 
			 East Midlands and East Cambridgeshire 142,460 146,328 
			 East Midlands and East Derbyshire 185,865 171,051 
			 East Midlands and East Essex 283,533 268,736 
			 East Midlands and East Hertfordshire 125,179 113,166 
			 East Midlands and East Leicestershire 179,907 169,746 
			 East Midlands and East Lincolnshire 83,164 81,891 
			 East Midlands and East Norfolk & Suffolk 227,116 196,779 
			 East Midlands and East Northamptonshire 103,861 110,399 
			 East Midlands and East Nottinghamshire 205,718 210,827 
			 East Midlands and East Regional Subtotal 1,655,378 1,570,779 
			     
			 London and South East London 1,335,305 1,260,208 
			 London and South East Hampshire 251,318 232,581 
			 London and South East Kent 282,934 256,056 
			 London and South East Thames Valley 282,904 229,108 
			 London and South East Regional Subtotal 2,152,461 1,977,953 
			     
			 North East, Yorks and Humber Durham Tees Valley 172,188 180,746 
			 North East, Yorks and Humber Humberside 178,421 183,209 
			 North East, Yorks and Humber North Yorkshire 125,852 136,485 
			 North East, Yorks and Humber Northumbria 179,365 190,271 
		
	
	
		
			 North East, Yorks and Humber South Yorkshire 298,440 292,665 
			 North East, Yorks and Humber Regional Subtotal 954,266 983,376 
			     
			 North West and West Midlands Cheshire 174,082 146,742 
			 North West and West Midlands Cumbria 82,839 81,057 
			 North West and West Midlands Greater Manchester 608,053 575,659 
			 North West and West Midlands Lancashire 209,457 211,908 
			 North West and West Midlands Merseyside 261,357 219,425 
			 North West and West Midlands Staffordshire and West Midlands 676,648 649,320 
			 North West and West Midlands Warwickshire 89,631 61,535 
			 North West and West Midlands West Mercia 168,953 151,286 
			 North West and West Midlands Regional Subtotal 2,271,020 2,096,932 
			     
			 South West and Wales Avon and Somerset 157,668 193,726 
			 South West and Wales Devon and Cornwall 129,364 155,655 
			 South West and Wales Dorset 76,380 66,897 
			 South West and Wales Gloucestershire 49,057 52,787 
			 South West and Wales Wales 625,452 635,066 
			 South West and Wales Wiltshire 68,810 61,178 
			 South West and Wales Regional Subtotal 1,106,731 1,165,309 
		
	
	
		
			 Table 2a: Number of hours of community payback completed by London borough 2011-12 
			  2011 
			  April May June July August September October November December 
			 Barking and Dagenham 2,261.58 2,883.67 2,881.18 3,205.65 2,667.92 3,028.23 3,111.73 2,743.83 2,342.98 
			 Barnet 2,588.43 3,247.75 4,042.67 3,753.90 2,706.08 3,231.68 3,060.25 3,232.83 2,887.35 
			 Bexley 2,063.13 2,778.13 2,878.82 2,973.33 2,430.25 2,363.50 2,490.75 2,325.45 1,909.48 
			 Brent 3,789.08 3,780.57 4,478.33 4,349.08 4,280.58 3,896.33 3,643.50 3,824.58 2,875.52 
			 Bromley 4,358.55 5,357.92 5,316.93 5,418.50 4,783.00 5,386.73 5,776.43 5,314.90 4,851.45 
			 Camden 1,514.83 2,013.83 2,020.58 2,109.00 1,881.75 1,956.42 2,471.37 2,430.25 1,503.33 
			 Croydon 3,132.23 3,612.00 3,517.03 3,922.25 3,439.92 3,448.20 3,638.90 3,690.62 2,952.08 
			 Ealing 4,715.17 5,219.42 5,467.08 5,587.50 4,678.42 4,763.63 5,239.00 4,473.58 2,726.58 
			 Enfield 3,601.17 3,585.25 3,616.38 3,874.58 2,956.35 2,637.35 3,046.73 3,516.75 3,206.50 
			 Greenwich 5,701.92 5,620.80 4,858.02 4,787.33 4,189.22 4,431.90 4,707.85 4,681.07 4,066.98 
		
	
	
		
			 Hackney 2,898.37 3,051.93 3,342.78 3,153.00 2,513.55 2,645.98 3,006.00 2,899.90 2,087.07 
			 Hammersmith 1,937.05 1,957.35 1,816.13 1,826.07 1,190.42 1,790.35 1,529.88 1,923.02 1,699.57 
			 Haringey 4,110.65 4,792.93 4,871.25 5,372.12 4,484.90 4,787.82 5,727.72 5,944.17 4,336.08 
			 Harrow 2,010.00 2,437.00 2,260.65 2,865.75 2,441.75 2,306.50 2,424.75 2,600.25 2,005.25 
			 Havering 4,457.50 5,327.93 5,557.00 5,461.08 4,954.67 4,286.13 4,511.27 4,663.45 3,674.23 
			 Hillingdon 2,823.00 3,022.67 3,373.33 3,605.58 3,001.77 2,744.72 2,477.48 2,562.50 1,829.25 
			 Hounslow 3,833.75 3,885.25 4,529.75 4,808.53 3,522.88 4,254.08 4,133.62 3,975.83 3,083.92 
			 Islington 3,028.17 3,351.22 3,592.92 3,558.28 2,720.75 2,705.67 2,694.67 2,779.43 1,997.42 
			 Kensington 1,623.50 2,028.67 2,490.92 2,100.25 1734.75 1,825.92 1,634.42 1,376.67 1,110.25 
			 Kingston 1,554.58 1,537.68 1,676.30 1,738.40 762.90 1,111.33 1,201.18 1,178.45 1,192.78 
			 Lambeth 6,293.50 7,211.97 6,757.98 6,401.33 4,993.97 5,691.42 6,037.68 6,152.43 4,979.38 
			 Lewisham 4,311.90 4,639.65 4,517.70 3,952.88 3,022.98 3,103.42 3,379.45 3,906.47 3,101.38 
			 Merton 4,258.53 4,790.45 4,952.62 4,546.90 3,357.55 3,820.02 4,377.85 4,341.92 3,677.05 
			 Newham 4,836.70 5,942.10 6,643.17 6,817.25 6,064.62 5,875.12 6,488.27 5,872.15 4,819.65 
			 Redbridge 3,914.00 4,567.58 4,539.15 4,812.18 4,204.75 4,488.05 4,432.13 4,142.40 2,995.90 
			 Richmond 746.02 1,109.18 944.02 1,076.12 538.33 740.58 737.78 909.65 584.77 
			 Southwark 4,072.73 4,206.42 4,213.22 4,532.28 4,090.53 3,695.30 3,478.70 2,915.27 2,799.83 
			 Sutton 1,476.03 1,589.28 1,357.90 1,581.68 874.98 1,493.53 1,440.92 1,385.03 940.13 
			 Tower Hamlets 3,051.30 3,666.78 3,513.95 3,394.20 3,076.90 3,215.83 3,229.07 2,763.32 2,817.23 
			 Waltham Forest 2,790.42 3,597.00 3,622.48 3,596.35 3,192.08 3,525.17 4,107.33 3,517.90 3,063.33 
			 Wandsworth 1,980.28 2,201.52 2,030.53 1,463.67 963.27 1,290.12 1,215.90 1,278.75 1,457.70 
			 Westminster 1,017.33 1,112.57 660.17 377.92 353.50 646.83 822.50 1,004.33 514.25 
			 Total 100,751.42 114,126.47 116,340.95 117,022.97 96,075.28 101,187.87 106,275.08 104,327.15 84,088.70 
		
	
	
		
			  2012  
			  January February March Total hours 
			 Barking and Dagenham 3,072.08 3,407.93 3,063.08 34,669.88 
			 Barnet 2,744.08 2,249.08 3,201.17 36,945.28 
			 Bexley 2,056.83 2,279.50 2,993.67 29,542.85 
			 Brent 3,699.83 3,960.25 4,426.08 47,003.75 
			 Bromley 5,579.17 5,831.90 6,555.67 64,531.15 
			 Camden 1,920.25 2,044.33 2,045.08 23,911.03 
			 Croydon 3,506.25 3,341.53 4,151.67 42,352.68 
			 Ealing 3,979.97 4,537.28 4,766.17 56,153.80 
			 Enfield 3,770.42 4,218.92 5,252.00 43,282.40 
			 Greenwich 4,630.38 4,836.38 5,312.35 57,824.20 
			 Hackney 2,870.18 2,710.42 3,269.50 34,448.68 
			 Hammersmith 1,945.22 2,016.70 2,131.40 21,763.15 
			 Haringey 5,400.35 5,441.15 6,027.08 61,296.22 
			 Harrow 2,514.33 2,503.92 2,867.92 29,238.07 
			 Havering 4,516.62 4,994.92 5,134.60 57,539.40 
			 Hillingdon 3,245.50 3,007.25 3,692.08 35,385.13 
			 Hounslow 4,453.75 4,008.33 4,526.00 49,015.70 
			 Islington 2,222.83 2,111.00 2,241.92 33,004.27 
			 Kensington 1,643.00 1,690.58 1,979.92 21,238.83 
			 Kingston 1,533.23 1,493.20 1,093.00 16,073.05 
			 Lambeth 5,539.87 6,314.02 6,561.55 72,935.10 
			 Lewisham 3,560.43 3,657.20 3,820.03 44,973.50 
			 Merton 4,416.67 4,912.27 4,929.25 52,381.07 
			 Newham 4,895.22 4,526.50 4,991.43 67,772.17 
			 Redbridge 3,686.63 3,577.25 3,560.75 48,920.78 
			 Richmond 949.75 1,076.20 1,313.50 10,725.90 
			 Southwark 3,252.27 3,045.93 3,162.52 43,465.00 
			 Sutton 1,551.67 1,249.00 1,604.50 16,544.67 
			 Tower Hamlets 2,953.97 3,154.05 3,144.52 37,981.12 
			 Waltham Forest 3,646.07 3,234.58 3,367.33 41,260.05 
			 Wandsworth 1,559.87 1,678.02 1,884.78 19,004.40 
			 Westminster 352.75 339.25 505.00 7,706.40 
			 Total 101,669.43 103,448.85 113,575.52 1,258,889.68 
		
	
	
		
			 Table 2b: Number of hours of community payback completed by London Borough 2010-11 
			  2010 
			  April May June July August September October November December 
			 Barking and Dagenham 2,058.22 2,320.18 1,615.33 2,070.30 2,075.17 1,753.68 2,105.33 1,958.08 1,305.67 
			 Barnet 2,857.25 3,472.67 3,896.45 4,341.72 4,204.32 4,068.00 3,968.73 3,890.75 2,776.92 
			 Bexley 2,404.42 2,596.48 2,567.40 2,459.83 2,654.83 2,823.75 3,263.42 2,812.18 1,844.62 
			 Brent 3,913.20 4,826.18 4,279.25 4,672.75 4,622.08 4,715.00 4,976.50 5,069.42 3,443.67 
			 Bromley 3,961.00 4,329.57 4,929.82 5,794.48 5,070.43 5,057.77 5,801.90 5,483.88 3,174.52 
			 Camden 2,580.88 2,523.33 2,528.92 2,244.25 1,847.22 2,277.65 2,458.08 2,093.08 1,305.48 
			 Croydon 3,875.08 4,424.43 4,021.33 4,236.35 4,258.53 4,392.25 4,667.47 4,415.12 3,025.67 
		
	
	
		
			 Ealing 5,378.67 5,690.83 5,450.00 5,832.92 4,849.83 5,459.83 6,137.98 6,077.52 4,988.92 
			 Enfield 4,290.18 5,259.20 5,703.65 5,520.75 5,342.58 5,794.23 5,934.83 5,279.83 3,540.38 
			 Greenwich 5,072.92 6,085.27 5,872.68 6,179.07 5,734.67 6,279.87 5,654.85 5,957.32 4,287.58 
			 Hackney 2,545.17 2,668.78 2,922.63 2,855.38 2,728.17 3,638.67 4,470.48 4,129.32 2,905.42 
			 Hammersmith 1,665.48 1,985.00 1,953.10 1,942.78 1,944.00 1,969.83 2,198.17 2,146.60 1,900.87 
			 Haringey 3,740.25 4,132.57 4,434.23 5,013.93 4,781.37 4,833.45 5,295.03 5,437.27 4,080.50 
			 Harrow 2,044.33 1,950.67 1,806.00 1,968.02 1,798.17 2,286.23 2,468.50 2,208.25 1,481.25 
			 Havering 3,607.37 4,981.03 5,031.58 5,130.58 5,318.17 5,006.07 5,320.32 4,878.05 3,552.58 
			 Hillingdon 3,715.50 4,050.35 3,885.50 3,838.50 3,297.75 2,861.50 3,143.25 2,891.50 2,251.00 
			 Hounslow 3,507.92 3,416.75 3,888.82 3,636.17 2,976.17 3,291.00 3,994.83 4,229.42 2,999.00 
			 Islington 2,396.95 2,658.42 2,600.05 3,515.10 2,956.45 2,678.40 3,171.82 2,900.98 1,936.33 
			 Kensington 1,809.17 1,881.50 1,793.50 2,243.00 1,838.75 1,919.20 1,225.02 1,021.35 827.43 
			 Kingston 1,460.92 1,816.00 2,119.47 1,872.25 1,491.25 1,258.35 1,705.25 1,757.67 1,042.37 
			 Lambeth 5,955.03 6,906.97 7,162.73 7,793.82 6,770.45 6,962.02 6,609.45 7,122.33 5,385.47 
			 Lewisham 3,272.03 4,121.75 4,196.12 4,856.47 4,404.13 4,126.00 4,329.58 4,594.95 3,305.42 
			 Merton 4,270.72 4524.45 4,486.87 4,725.07 4,246.10 4,211.67 4,807.02 4412.70 3,431.20 
			 Newham 5,532.08 5,913.27 5,858.00 6,385.70 5,915.98 6,016.55 7,133.87 6,476.35 4,805.30 
			 Redbridge 2,382.58 2,765.00 2,573.73 3,231.02 3,085.53 2,291.20 2,910.23 3,015.20 1,966.25 
			 Richmond 972.00 1,198.23 908.02 1,160.75 1,025.43 947.00 1,301.67 1,283.17 714.53 
			 Southwark 3,766.12 4,529.55 4,846.47 5,626.17 4,245.20 3,419.83 3,982.35 3,532.37 2,518.25 
			 Sutton 1,276.58 1,671.17 1,676.67 1,522.18 1,577.67 1,324.65 1,620.00 1,365.17 971.25 
			 Tower Hamlets 2,420.75 3,019.78 2,876.33 3,211.80 3,364.03 3,434.73 3,756.28 3,722.03 2,579.75 
			 Waltham Forest 2,701.80 3,170.67 3,226.08 3,536.12 3,424.03 3,098.00 3,585.50 3,615.83 2,622.07 
			 Wandsworth 1,881.32 2,208.42 2,122.48 2,206.32 2,009.50 1,757.68 2,384.60 2,149.58 1,438.02 
			 Westminster 774.25 983.75 832.00 1,060.25 1,056.50 1,213.58 1,554.28 1,157.90 767.50 
			 Total 98,090.13 112,082.22 112,065.22 120,683.78 110,914.47 111,167.65 121,936.60 117,085.17 83,175.17 
		
	
	
		
			  2011  
			  January February March Total hours 
			 Barking and Dagenham 2,329.67 2,568.15 2,772.42 24,932.20 
			 Barnet 2,816.25 2,940.83 3,171.32 42,405.20 
			 Bexley 2,713.57 2,642.60 2,793.58 31,576.68 
			 Brent 4,933.67 5,307.00 5,394.58 56,153.30 
			 Bromley 5,132.33 5,069.93 5,997.78 59,803.42 
			 Camden 1,699.08 1,714.77 1,733.67 25,006.42 
			 Croydon 4,497.93 4,008.42 3,382.52 49,205.10 
			 Ealing 6,050.02 5,131.60 5,791.13 66,839.25 
			 Enfield 4,197.57 4,599.05 4,539.93 60,002.20 
			 Greenwich 5,465.63 5,484.62 6,385.08 68,459.55 
			 Hackney 3,759.75 3,976.85 3,892.62 40,493.23 
			 Hammersmith 2,338.42 2,081.42 2,330.20 24,455.87 
			 Haringey 5,138.35 5,066.10 5,658.47 57,611.52 
			 Harrow 2,223.25 2,159.52 2,318.75 24,712.93 
			 Havering 5,251.00 5,402.38 5,578.95 59,058.08 
			 Hillingdon 3,004.08 3,777.50 3,644.75 40,361.18 
			 Hounslow 3,694.67 3,584.48 4,100.48 43,319.70 
			 Islington 2,744.83 3,018.35 3,526.03 34,103.72 
			 Kensington 1,080.67 1,192.00 1,376.75 18,208.33 
			 Kingston 1,714.62 1,570.87 1,792.97 19,601.97 
			 Lambeth 6,654.53 7,004.38 8,520.35 82,847.53 
			 Lewisham 4,201.88 4,357.78 5,333.63 51,099.75 
			 Merton 4,809.00 4,826.32 5,496.63 54,247.73 
			 Newham 5,503.73 5,575.05 6,406.12 71,522.00 
			 Redbridge 3,320.48 3,306.32 4,532.00 35,379.55 
			 Richmond 932.05 1,054.15 1,031.55 12,528.55 
			 Southwark 3,793.88 4,045.77 4,761.82 49,067.77 
			 Sutton 1,578.58 1,405.12 2,013.48 18,002.52 
			 Tower Hamlets 3,370.53 3,411.20 4,104.88 39,272.12 
			 Waltham Forest 3,889.55 3,448.58 3,951.00 40,269.23 
			 Wandsworth 1,845.67 1,875.25 1,638.37 23,517.20 
			 Westminster 994.08 1,231.28 1,350.73 12,976.12 
			 Total 111,679.33 112,837.63 125,322.55 1,337,039.92

Personal Injury: Compensation

Andrew Stephenson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice 
	(1)  with reference to his Department's recent consultation on fixed recoverable costs which ran between 19 November 2012 and 4 January 2013; if he will consider the recommendation of the Secondary Legislation Committee of the House of Lords not to hold future consultations over the Christmas and New Year period;
	(2)  what research his Department undertook in order to ascertain the cost of other marketing arrangements for solicitors' firms in the personal injury sector for the purposes of calculating the reduction in fixed recoverable costs as part of the road traffic accident portal;
	(3)  what research his Department undertook in order to ascertain the average referral fees paid in personal injury cases for the purposes of calculating the reduction in fixed recoverable costs as part of the road traffic accident portal;
	(4)  when he intends to publish the impact assessment of the potential effects on affected groups of introducing fixed recoverable costs in personal injury claims.

Helen Grant: The information is as follows:
	PQ 139586
	The recommendation made by the House of Lords Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee was in response to the publication of the Consultation Principles in July 2012. As such, it is a matter for the Cabinet Office which will respond in due course.
	The Committee is particularly concerned about consultations which take place primarily over the Christmas and new year period. The consultation on fixed recoverable costs ran from 19 November 2012 to 4 January 2013 and, therefore, the majority of it took place before this period.
	PQs 139587 and 139588
	For the purposes of these calculations, the Ministry of Justice did not commission any additional external research into either the cost of other marketing arrangements or the average referral fee paid. With regard to the latter, information on referral fees was provided in the impact assessment on Referral Fees in Personal Injury Claims which is available on the Department's website at:
	http://www.justice.gov.uk/legislation/bills-and-acts/acts/legal-aid-and-sentencing-act/laspo-background-information
	Evidence for the proposals was also gathered through a call for evidence conducted in early 2012; ongoing stakeholder engagement at ministerial and official level; and further consultations on specific aspects of the planned changes.
	PQ 139589
	I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave him on 7 January 2013, Official Report, column 162W.

Probation

Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice 
	(1)  how many probation trusts in England and Wales (a) exceeded and (b) failed to meet their performance targets in each year since the introduction of the trusts;
	(2)  what the (a) targets and (b) achievement against targets for each probation trust in England and Wales were in each year since the introduction of the trusts.

Jeremy Wright: At the start of the 2010-11 financial year all of the former probation boards had completed the transition to trust status. The tables showing actual performance against the targets in trusts' contracts for the years 2010-11 and 2011-12 will be placed in the Library of the House. For each indicator the table also shows the number of trusts that met or did not meet the relevant target.
	I am sorry that the right hon. Gentleman has had to wait for a reply to these questions. The delays are a consequence of the need for officials to compile and quality assure the detailed information presented in the tables.
	Performance outturns for 2012-13 will be published in July.

Young Offenders

Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice 
	(1)  how many people in the Metropolitan police area aged (a) 17, (b) 16, (c) 15, (d) 14, (e) 13, (f) 12, (g) 11 and (h) 10 were found guilty of an offence in each year from 1997 to 2012;
	(2)  how many people aged under 18 years old were found guilty of an offence (a) by type of offence, (b) by police authority and (c) in total in each year from 1997 to 2012;
	(3)  how many people found guilty of an offence were aged (a) 17, (b) 16, (c) 15, (d) 14, (e) 13, (f) 12, (g) 11 and (h) 10 in each year from 1997 to 2012;
	(4)  how many people aged under 18 in the Metropolitan police area were found guilty of an offence in each year from 1997 to 2012;
	(5)  how many people in the Metropolitan police area found guilty of an offence in each year from 1997 to 2012 were aged (a) 17, (b) 16, (c) 15, (d) 14, (e) 13, (f) 12, (g) 11 and (h) 10;
	(6)  what offences were committed by those people aged under 18 in the Metropolitan police area who were found guilty of that offence in each year from 1997 to 2012.

Jeremy Wright: The number of juvenile offenders found guilty at all courts, by offence group, in England and Wales, from 1997 to 2011, is shown in Table 1.
	The number of juvenile offenders found guilty at all courts, by police force area, in England and Wales, from 1997 to 2011, is shown in Table 2.
	The number of juvenile offenders found guilty at all courts, by age in years, England and Wales, from 1997 to 2011, is shown in Table 3.
	The number of juvenile offenders found guilty at all courts, by age in years, in the Metropolitan police force area, 1997 to 2011, is shown in Table 4.
	The number of juvenile offenders found guilty at all courts, by offence group, in the Metropolitan police force area, 1997 to 2011, is shown in Table 5.
	
		
			 Table 1: Juvenile(1) offenders found guilty at all courts, by offence group, England and Wales, 1997 to 2011(2,3) 
			 Number of offenders 
			 Offence group 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 
			 Indictable offences        
			 Violence against the person 5,885 6,013 5,982 6,404 6,910 6,871 6,579 
			 Sexual offences 469 467 489 466 510 557 448 
			 Burglary 8,628 8,528 7,804 6,814 6,271 6,418 5,751 
			 Robbery 2,342 2,170 2,044 2,225 2,792 2,807 2,641 
		
	
	
		
			 Theft and handling stolen goods 19,578 21,884 22,650 21,003 20,560 18,436 16,538 
			 Fraud and forgery 806 963 1,080 1,017 1,037 979 829 
			 Criminal damage 2,263 2,324 2,691 2,576 2,897 2,910 2,948 
			 Drug offences 1,847 2,749 3,113 3,737 4,341 4,957 5,145 
			 Other (excluding motoring offences) 4,178 4,212 4,345 4,394 4,340 4,442 4,278 
			 Motoring offences 362 423 442 555 647 733 799 
			 Total 46,358 49,733 50,640 49,191 50,305 49,110 45,956 
			         
			 Summary offences        
			 Offences (excluding motoring offences) 22,036 25,518 27,010 27,737 28,500 28,351 28,745 
			 Motoring offences 10,757 11,255 12,630 14,495 16,725 17,085 17,840 
			 Total 32,793 36,773 39,640 42,232 45,225 45,436 46,585 
			 All offences(5) 79,151 86,506 90,280 91,423 95,530 94,546 92,541 
		
	
	
		
			 Number of offenders 
			 Offence group 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008(4) 2009 2010 2011 
			 Indictable offences         
			 Violence against the person 6,906 7,428 7,520 7,679 7,378 6,818 6,395 5,103 
			 Sexual offences 587 554 492 543 517 501 585 492 
			 Burglary 5,934 6,042 6,167 6,131 5,415 5,372 5,138 4,783 
			 Robbery 2,964 3,079 3,701 4,115 3,618 3,610 3,420 3,761 
			 Theft and handling stolen goods 16,797 17,059 16,340 18,220 15,954 14,593 13,557 12,068 
			 Fraud and forgery 783 702 607 681 522 563 544 378 
			 Criminal damage 3,233 3,268 3,669 3,627 2,621 1,900 1,770 1,404 
			 Drug offences 4,478 4,628 4,455 5,264 6,379 6,297 5,911 5,155 
			 Other (excluding motoring offences) 4,617 4,492 4,121 4,193 3,535 4,053 3,994 3,095 
			 Motoring offences 717 569 519 408 325 280 189 152 
			 Total 47,016 47,821 47,591 50,861 46,264 43,987 41,503 36,391 
			          
			 Summary offences         
			 Offences (excluding motoring offences) 32,188 33,514 34,021 36,728 34,396 31,134 27,356 22,104 
			 Motoring offences 16,986 14,822 12,077 9,852 7,731 6,450 5,024 4,044 
			 Total 49,174 48,336 46,098 46,580 42,127 37,584 32,380 26,148 
			 All offences(5) 96,190 96,157 93,689 97,441 88,391 81,571 73,883 62,539 
			 (1) Aged 10 to 17 years of age. (2) The figures given in the table relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe. (3) Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. (4) Excludes convictions data for Cardiff magistrates court for April, July, and August 2008. (5)May not sum due to rounding. Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services—Ministry of Justice. 
		
	
	
		
			 Table 2: Juvenile(1) offenders found guilty at all courts, by police force area, England and Wales, 1997 to 2011(2,3) 
			 Number of offenders 
			 Police force area 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 
			 Avon and Somerset 1,359 1,219 1,399 1,497 1,764 1,675 1,841 
			 Bedfordshire 644 743 777 761 780 712 731 
			 Cambridgeshire 898 889 1,072 957 929 967 1,077 
			 Cheshire 1,362 1,491 1,385 1,490 1,496 1,642 1,588 
			 Cleveland 1,625 1,551 1,515 1,436 1,463 1,461 1,317 
			 Cumbria 1,168 1,168 1,252 1,096 1,098 1,076 1,043 
			 Derbyshire 1,234 1,221 1,283 1,281 1,491 1,551 1,469 
			 Devon and Cornwall 1,298 1,281 1,425 1,684 1,808 1,896 2,004 
			 Dorset 533 696 797 758 791 689 600 
			 Durham 1,474 1,523 1,903 1,816 1,589 1,608 1,315 
		
	
	
		
			 Essex 2,201 2,305 2,239 2,275 2,540 2,230 2,086 
			 Gloucestershire 680 611 610 670 757 721 711 
			 Greater Manchester 4,896 5,322 6,105 7,051 7,500 6,923 6,510 
			 Hampshire 2,306 3,253 3,857 3,703 3,614 3,932 3,655 
			 Hertfordshire 817 789 882 1,039 1,095 1,207 1,299 
			 Humberside 1,533 1,634 1,857 1,750 1,718 1,668 1,858 
			 Kent 2,237 2,569 2,465 2,298 2,392 2,321 2,784 
			 Lancashire 2,912 3,105 3,034 3,299 3,219 3,539 3,317 
			 Leicestershire 1,497 1,460 1,437 1,517 1,688 1,776 1,771 
			 Lincolnshire 945 1,071 1,024 970 965 992 971 
			 London, City of 12 5 5 7 10 16 17 
			 Merseyside 2,789 2,780 2,613 3,096 3,142 3,029 3,736 
			 Metropolitan 10,547 12,363 11,713 11,418 13,218 13,127 11,434 
			 Norfolk 986 1,142 1,215 971 1,130 1,049 1,052 
			 North Yorkshire 916 949 1,278 1,200 1,042 1,000 1,094 
			 Northamptonshire 717 981 1,212 1,046 698 462 479 
			 Northumbria 3,960 4,838 5,031 4,515 4,213 4,312 4,385 
			 Nottinghamshire 2,273 2,299 2,403 2,507 2,447 2,308 2,362 
			 South Yorkshire 2,256 2,194 2,546 2,550 2,521 2,685 2,584 
			 Staffordshire 1,468 1,643 1,509 1,543 1,646 1,726 1,818 
			 Suffolk 842 797 933 950 1,073 1,077 1,266 
			 Surrey 679 679 747 815 905 789 819 
			 Sussex 1,328 1,399 1,286 1,490 1,596 1,524 1,650 
			 Thames Valley 1,778 1,764 1,764 2,156 2,542 2,437 2,168 
			 Warwickshire 523 532 592 524 602 530 490 
			 West Mercia 1,163 1,368 1,500 1,503 1,768 1,665 1,516 
			 West Midlands 5,248 5,618 5,831 6,423 6,855 7,004 6,566 
			 West Yorkshire 3,983 4,509 4,944 4,656 4,386 4,262 4,254 
			 Wiltshire 620 847 759 850 878 889 935 
			         
			 England 73,707 80,608 84,199 85,568 89,369 88,477 86,572 
			         
			 Dyfed Powys 711 788 745 646 714 663 774 
			 Gwent 1,146 1,114 1,240 1,264 1,313 1,232 1,188 
			 North Wales 918 1,028 1,132 1,144 1,174 1,190 1,229 
			 South Wales 2,669 2,968 2,964 2,801 2,960 2,983 2,778 
			         
			 Wales 5,444 5,898 6,081 5,855 6,161 6,068 5,969 
			         
			 England and Wales(5) 79,151 86,506 90,280 91,423 95,530 94,546 92,541 
		
	
	
		
			 Number of offenders 
			 Police force area 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008(4) 2009 2010 2011 
			 Avon and Somerset 1,695 1,831 2,048 2,250 2,037 1,801 1,752 1,529 
			 Bedfordshire 920 828 763 718 699 673 656 605 
			 Cambridgeshire 927 1,202 1,113 1,128 1,029 1,051 1,009 733 
			 Cheshire 1,588 1,698 1,758 1,681 1,471 1,167 921 757 
			 Cleveland 1,259 1,234 1,325 1,478 1,516 1,489 1,300 1,094 
			 Cumbria 1,119 1,276 1,309 1,340 1,214 1,045 829 733 
			 Derbyshire 1,653 1,658 1,543 1,803 1,686 1,456 1,216 1,038 
			 Devon and Cornwall 2,198 2,120 1,988 2,165 2,023 1,874 1,557 1,256 
			 Dorset 763 885 947 1,019 755 687 602 459 
			 Durham 1,249 1,413 1,387 1,674 1,231 1,115 914 812 
			 Essex 2,502 2,832 2,837 2,798 2,483 2,446 1,975 1,655 
			 Gloucestershire 719 809 833 894 820 650 499 330 
			 Greater Manchester 7,162 7,120 6,468 6,356 5,610 5,109 4,725 3,965 
			 Hampshire 4,022 3,695 3,496 4,073 3,667 3,334 2,953 2,452 
			 Hertfordshire 1,401 1,580 1,517 1,280 1,244 1,176 1,029 1,001 
			 Humberside 2,186 2,165 1,979 2,122 1,909 1,873 1,662 1,419 
			 Kent 2,619 2,623 2,526 2,536 2,228 2,173 2,023 1,889 
		
	
	
		
			 Lancashire 2,972 3,248 3,444 3,507 2,999 3,040 2,985 2,335 
			 Leicestershire 1,801 1,846 1,729 1,796 1,436 1,063 1,042 945 
			 Lincolnshire 940 834 726 828 753 726 575 503 
			 London, City of 2 2 5 6 8 3 3 2 
			 Merseyside 3,777 2,971 2,698 2,997 2,705 2,594 2,416 2,164 
			 Metropolitan 11,686 11,652 12,185 13,239 12,801 11,970 12,168 11,461 
			 Norfolk 984 910 1,020 1,099 1,139 975 900 775 
			 North Yorkshire 1,135 1,229 1,229 1,446 1,333 1,240 1,026 875 
			 Northamptonshire 577 404 455 762 787 751 789 613 
			 Northumbria 4,153 4,151 4,267 4,736 4,198 3,722 3,172 2,542 
			 Nottinghamshire 2,105 2,299 2,178 1,956 1,680 1,561 1,428 1,266 
			 South Yorkshire 2,515 2,486 2,295 2,391 2,433 2,198 2,074 1,574 
			 Staffordshire 1,810 1,839 1,667 1,648 1,384 1,081 1,073 732 
			 Suffolk 1,524 1,556 1,487 1,342 1,159 1,103 819 670 
			 Surrey 956 964 980 1,062 984 971 763 648 
			 Sussex 1,955 2,215 2,278 2,522 2,234 2,034 1,922 1,522 
			 Thames Valley 1,986 2,694 2,665 2,704 2,461 2,162 1,857 1,477 
			 Warwickshire 594 595 711 730 596 466 363 248 
			 West Mercia 1,961 2,020 2,069 2,072 1,809 1,509 1,280 942 
			 West Midlands 6,680 5,685 5,485 5,357 4,596 4,044 3,265 2,951 
			 West Yorkshire 5,125 4,998 4,206 4,279 4,163 3,875 3,410 2,515 
			 Wiltshire 954 993 904 749 716 817 726 534 
			          
			 England 90,174 90,560 88,520 92,543 83,996 77,024 69,678 59,021 
			          
			 Dyfed Powys 642 697 735 711 675 656 574 496 
			 Gwent 1,267 1,090 1,135 1,154 931 853 801 804 
			 North Wales 1,349 1,235 1,145 1,051 1,077 1,093 956 744 
			 South Wales 2,758 2,575 2,154 1,982 1,712 1,945 1,874 1,474 
			          
			 Wales 6,016 5,597 5,169 4,898 4,395 4,547 4,205 3,518 
			          
			 England and Wales(5) 96,190 96,157 93,689 97,441 88,391 81,571 73,883 62,539 
			 (1) Aged 10 to 17 years of age. (2) The figures given in the table relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe. (3) Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. (4) Excludes convictions data for Cardiff magistrates court for April, July, and August 2008. (5) May not sum due to rounding. Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services—Ministry of Justice 
		
	
	
		
			 Table 3: Juvenile(1) offenders found guilty at all courts, by age in years, England and Wales, 1997 to 2011(2,3) 
			 Number of offenders 
			 Age in years 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 
			 10 93 121 160 195 199 178 168 
			 11 330 488 748 759 727 724 714 
			 12 1,103 1,560 1,876 1,921 2,160 1,984 1,904 
			 13 3,005 3,653 4,245 4,501 4,826 4,738 4,612 
			 14 7,096 8,065 9,142 9,539 9,900 9,935 9,564 
			 15 13,121 14,379 15,257 16,095 16,996 16,564 16,522 
			 16 20,813 22,724 22,838 22,944 24,344 24,048 23,660 
			 17 33,590 35,516 36,014 35,469 36,378 36,374 35,397 
			         
			 All ages(5) 79,151 86,506 90,280 91,423 95,530 94,546 92,541 
		
	
	
		
			 Number of offenders 
			 Age in years 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008(4) 2009 2010 2011 
			 10 209 152 128 146 84 61 42 34 
		
	
	
		
			 11 670 703 591 630 580 381 261 209 
			 12 1,995 2,040 1,999 2,081 1,763 1,465 1,132 825 
			 13 5,066 5,277 4,985 5,260 4,660 3,830 3,326 2,529 
			 14 10,328 10,957 10,867 11,256 10,295 8,873 7,631 6,341 
			 15 17,388 17,992 18,730 19,388 16,818 15,748 14,083 11,233 
			 16 24,918 24,945 24,464 26,104 23,435 21,756 19,948 17,044 
			 17 35,616 34,091 31,925 32,576 30,756 29,457 27,460 24,324 
			          
			 All ages(5) 96,190 96,157 93,689 97,441 88,391 81,571 73,883 62,539 
			 (1) Aged 10 to 17 years of age. (2) The figures given in the table relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe. (3) Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. (4) Excludes convictions data for Cardiff magistrates court for April, July, and August 2008. (5) May not sum due to rounding. Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services—Ministry of Justice 
		
	
	
		
			 Table 4: Juvenile(1) offenders found guilty at all courts, by age in years, in the Metropolitan police force area, 1997 to 2011(2,3) 
			 Number of offenders 
			 Age in years 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 
			 10 5 8 16 18 14 18 25 
			 11 17 30 62 40 42 51 48 
			 12 79 93 169 142 192 172 151 
			 13 250 330 351 437 507 527 458 
			 14 707 784 1,046 1,070 1,232 1,259 1,089 
			 15 1,459 1,614 1,776 1,855 2,179 2,237 2,104 
			 16 3,147 3,987 3,042 2,932 3,382 3,292 3,068 
			 17 4,883 5,517 5,251 4,924 5,670 5,571 4,491 
			         
			 All ages(4) 10,547 12,363 11,713 11,418 13,218 13,127 11,434 
		
	
	
		
			 Number of offenders 
			 Age in years 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 
			 10 26 5 13 9 12 7 4 1 
			 11 40 28 41 47 35 47 38 36 
			 12 156 118 174 227 157 178 195 148 
			 13 414 443 546 640 574 539 532 518 
			 14 1,199 1,173 1,320 1,590 1,525 1,336 1,308 1,182 
			 15 2,097 2,275 2,466 2,718 2,470 2,397 2,405 2,090 
			 16 3,268 3,226 3,407 3,554 3,437 3,283 3,295 3,183 
			 17 4,486 4,384 4,218 4,454 4,591 4,183 4,391 4,303 
			          
			 All ages(4) 11,686 11,652 12,185 13,239 12,801 11,970 12,168 11,461 
			 (1) Aged 10 to 17 years of age. (2) The figures given in the table relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe. (3) Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. (4) May not sum due to rounding. Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services—Ministry of Justice 
		
	
	
		
			 Table 5: Juvenile(1) offenders found guilty at all courts, by offence group, in the Metropolitan police force area, 1997 to 2011(2,3) 
			 Number of offenders 
			 Offence group 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 
			 Indictable offences        
			 Violence against the person 748 768 774 869 1,080 1,103 889 
			 Sexual offences 51 41 53 39 63 87 70 
		
	
	
		
			 Burglary 826 783 700 622 596 590 559 
			 Robbery 668 590 592 707 988 865 784 
			 Theft and handling stolen goods 2,266 2,529 2,558 2,281 2,364 2,248 1,894 
			 Fraud and forgery 123 125 170 157 222 214 170 
			 Criminal damage 237 244 348 286 249 244 205 
			 Drug offences 370 608 657 798 901 1,055 1,109 
			 Other (excluding motoring offences) 563 559 574 676 674 767 584 
			 Motoring offences 17 37 35 61 70 96 102 
			 Total 5,869 6,284 6,461 6,496 7,207 7,269 6,366 
			         
			 Summary offences        
			 Offences (excluding motoring offences) 3,593 4,841 3,681 3,073 3,631 3,124 2,347 
			 Motoring offences 1,085 1,238 1,571 1,849 2,380 2,734 2,721 
			 Total 4,678 6,079 5,252 4,922 6,011 5,858 5,068 
			         
			 All offences(4) 10,547 12,363 11,713 11,418 13,218 13,127 11,434 
		
	
	
		
			 Number of offenders 
			 Offence group 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 
			 Indictable offences         
			 Violence against the person 950 1,057 1,092 1,142 1,333 1,162 1,269 1,150 
			 Sexual offences 73 66 57 78 87 71 122 88 
			 Burglary 577 594 624 682 562 642 597 731 
			 Robbery 1,010 1,106 1,533 1,791 1,570 1,419 1,585 1,892 
			 Theft and handling stolen goods 1,859 1,688 1,850 2,199 1,949 1,877 1,959 1,798 
			 Fraud and forgery 151 124 88 127 102 109 106 65 
			 Criminal damage 278 247 253 258 132 74 85 96 
			 Drug offences 943 1,155 1,235 1,544 1,946 1,763 1,832 1,704 
			 Other (excluding motoring offences) 620 587 586 579 575 651 642 625 
			 Motoring offences 92 89 91 61 51 37 29 33 
			 Total 6,553 6,713 7,409 8,461 8,307 7,805 8,226 8,182 
			          
			 Summary offences         
			 Offences (excluding motoring offences) 2,456 2,628 2,997 3,385 3,514 3,391 3,277 2,737 
			 Motoring offences 2,677 2,311 1,779 1,393 980 774 665 542 
			 Total 5,133 4,939 4,776 4,778 4,494 4,165 3,942 3,279 
			          
			 All offences(4) 11,686 11,652 12,185 13,239 12,801 11,970 12,168 11,461 
			 (1 )Aged 10 to 17 years of age. (2) The figures given in the table relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe. (3) Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. (4) May not sum due to rounding. Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services—Ministry of Justice.